Al Beadle

Who was Al Beadle?

Alfred N. Beadle V was an American modernistic architect active in Phoenix, Arizona.

During his lifetime Beadle was best known for designing Case Study Apartment #1, a three-unit apartment development know as the Triad in Phoenix, AZ, which was part of the Case Study House program of Arts & Architecture magazine. More recently Beadle has been rediscovered for his stylish mid-century residential housing stock and for his influence on desert modernism. All of Beadle's output reflects a rigorous, rectilinear modernist idiom consistent with the work of Mies van der Rohe, Richard Neutra and the postwar steel-frame houses typified by the Case Study experiments.

Trained in construction during World War II as a Seabee, Beadle moved to Phoenix in the early 1950s and built a variety of commercial and residential projects, including an entire housing development called Paradise Gardens, and the local landmark of the Safari Resort in Scottsdale.

His lack of an architectural license led to professional difficulties and, at one point, he was charged with practicing without a license. The state of Arizona wanted to "grandfather" him in by giving him a license, but he refused to accept it and went on to take the state's test and passed. As part of his defense, Beadle's lawyer pointed out that another local architect, one Frank Lloyd Wright, was also practicing without the proper credentials.