Iconic Design Awards 2025

Our team was honored to win 8 Iconic Awards for 3 of our recent custom home projects in the Interior & Architecture categories. The event was a beautiful soiree coordinated by Publisher Renee Dee at The Scottsdale Performing Arts Center.

Take a Tour with ICONIC Estates

One of our iconic Transitional style homes located on the Paradise Valley Country Club golf course was featured as Iconic Life Magazine's latest Iconic Estate. Tour this stunning estate designed by architect Mark Candelaria and Mara Green of Mara Green Interior Design with panoramic views of ICONIC Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona and lush golf course.

Inside this magnificent home, we see floor-to-ceiling glass, 20-ft ceilings and custom millwork and cabinetry throughout. This classic design has a modern feel with a soft elegance that makes this home an ICONIC Estate. Don't miss the sound-proofed home theatre, extensive wine cellar and luxurious primary closet with a luxe shopping vibe. Lush gardens and courtyards surround this home, designed by Refined Gardens. Butterflies are attracted to the colors and year-round blooms of this outdoor oasis.

The Host Who Does the Most

The iconic dinner parties and dishes archi-chef Mark Candelaria creates are featured in a story in Iconic Life Magazine’s Holiday issue here and in Orange County. See for yourself what makes his dinners so memorable and why he is deemed “The Host who does the Most.”

Iconic Design Awards 2024

Iconic Life Magazine's 2nd Annual Iconic Design Awards Ceremony took place last weekend at Scottsdale Center for the Arts SMOCA. Both of our submissions won in the Best Transitional Custom Home over 7,500 sf category!

The Iconic award went to our 19,000sf modern Italian Villa in the heart of Paradise Valley. The Gold Award went to our Santa Barbara/Spanish Colonial Revival style ranch home set on 5 acres, also in the heart of Paradise Valley.

Our projects also won Silver in On the Boards more than 7,500sf for a Kitchen design and the Iconic Award for Best Dining Room for our Joshua Tree Spec home in PV.

Iconic Life: A Quarter Century of Candelaria Design

The local luxury magazine Iconic Life has featured a beautiful spread in their September issue showcasing some of our more recent projects and celebrating our 25th Anniversary. Thank you for your partnership and support as well Iconic Team!

Five Iconic Design Awards

Five Candelaria Design projects received awards in various categories at the inaugural Iconic Awards this winter!

The Boulders Beauty

ICONIC LIFE ARIZONA current issue features a beautiful modern Mediterranean style home Mark designed in Carefree's The Boulders Golf community. The home has traditional lines, but celebrates our bright, informal Arizona lifestyle with spaces you can live in indoors and out. "The home's warm style is thanks to a hands on collaboration between the owners, who are transplants from Alaska, and a stellar team of local design talents." The design team included Builder Dick Lloyd⁠ Custom Homes, Hyde Park⁠ Interiors, and Landscape by Greey | Pickett.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Top landscape designer Jeff Berghoff and architect Mark Candelaria craft a Modernist jewel box home on a tight lot in Phoenix. “On a leafy street in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix, a rustic wood door serves as a portal to a secret world—an airy, minimalist, light-filled house that embraces a carefully plotted landscape, shaded by sycamore trees and given structure through cactus and agaves.” …

Dear to an Architect's Heart

Iconic Magazine's Holiday issue features a Family Farmhouse we designed in the heart of Arcadia. Principal Meredith Thomson was chosen to design this dream home as she has known the clients for many years, the client's sister was Meredith's best friend growing up, hence the title "Dear to an Architect's Heart".

Iconic Life: In the Kitchen with Architect Mark Candelaria

In 1999, he started his namesake firm and has been in growth mode ever since, all the time amazing his clients and friends with his capacity to embrace all the beauty in life, including piano playing, singing, cooking, painting, traveling, leading international tours, and appreciating fine wines and cigars.

Today, he is cooking for family, friends and clients regularly from the test kitchen he built in his design studio during an expansion last year. With the contribution of Monogram appliances, Candelaria is now a prolific chef hosting guests every month. Here are two dishes we’ve enjoyed with him. Thanks, Mark for sharing your recipes here.

See Arizona’s ICONIC Enchantment Resort in Sedona Through the Eyes of Architect Mark Candelaria

In this feature in October’s ICONIC LIFE Magazine, Mark Candelaria reflects on his 60 years as an architect by looking back at one of his first, highly renowned projects, the Enchantment Resort nestled in the red rocks of Sedona, AZ.⁠ ⁠

"It’s a place where the soul and spirit of the young, bright-eyed Mark Candelaria, with a full head of hair, dreams and aspirations, still lives and walks through the piñon gazing at the endless horizon framed by the red rocks of Sedona."⁠ ⁠

Take a look at this beautiful resort and all the logistics and creativity that went into bringing it to life.

Right: Architects Mark & George Christensen surveying the property in 1987