Our clients spent months on this land before a single drawing was made, selectively clearing trees, reading the site, working out which views were worth keeping and which weren’t. The ski area base lodge sits in the distance, lit up at night; that view was deliberately screened out by leaving the right trees in place. The stream running through the property was just as deliberately kept in earshot. By the time we arrived, the land already had strong opinions about what should happen on it.
The site is steeply sloped, which made a mostly single-story building an exercise in how far a plan can stretch before it becomes a journey. We let it become one. A series of small gabled shed structures connected by low flat-roofed elements gives the building a rhythm that follows the land rather than sitting on top of it—peaks rising and resolving, not unlike the mountain ridgeline visible beyond the tree line. The massing was studied carefully to keep the scale intimate, so the building feels like it emerged from the ground rather than placed on it.
Exposed board-formed concrete at the base allowed the building to simply emerge out of the ground without requiring landscaping and retaining walls to help order and transition grade changes. Above it, a well-composed mix of pre-stained cedar and Douglas fir siding in varying colors, punctuated by over-sized windows, delineates the different volumes the architecture creates.
Privacy and quiet shaped the interior as much as the site shaped the exterior. The yoga studio sits in the rafters of the second floor as a place to retreat to, with peaceful views and privacy from the rest of the house. The primary bathroom shower is surrounded by glass, private in a way that feels unlikely given the openness. Walking out to the stream and firepit is seamless. The screened porch puts the sound of water close enough to sit with. The house was designed to move through—different rooms for different times of day, different seasons, different states of mind.
Architecture & Interior Architecture Volansky Studio
Interior Design & Furnishings Stoneledge Studio
Builder Silver Maple Construction
Structural Engineer Artisan Engineering
Landscape Wagner Hodgson
