Design Icon – Builder

Nick Mancusi was born into a building family, learning from his father the pride in craftsmanship and creating a home. But Mancusi was also intrigued by architecture and how design was influenced by function. By age 10, he was designing and drafting floor plans, and immersed in the language of architecture. Mancusi found his way to Taliesin West where he studied architecture and graduated under the mentorship of architect Michael P. Johnson. Johnson taught the disciple about critical thinking, subtractive architectural design and how function is the driver for architecture. Mancusi focused on architectural student programming and accreditation in Washington D.C. before returning to the desert to design. Working with Johnson, Mancusi created construction documents and spent time in the field working through building details. Finally, he was ready to build his own home, Casa Mancusi, a modern floating hillside home born of function and value. That led to an opportunity to build one of Johnson’s designs, the Mollard Residence. Now, as both a registered architect and a licensed contractor with a firm based in Cave Creek, Mancusi focuses on the purity of modern architecture.