Project: Silver Summit Residence
Architects: Imbue Design
Construction: Andrew Parker Construction
Structural Engineering: Vector Engineering
Civil Engineering: Johanson Engineering
Lighting Consultant: The Light Spot
Location: Park City, Utah, United States
Area: 465 m²
Year: 2021
Photographs: Miranda Kimberlin
Text by Imbue Design
In the Rocky Mountains of North America near Park City, Utah the views are as world-class as its skiing. The natural landscape is beautifully rugged and harsh with a climate to match. While it supplies limitless vistas and recreation, the mountain offers very little in terms of flat terrain or shelter from severe winter conditions. Like the gambrel oak trees that blanket the site, anything living on the mountain has to be hearty and willing to work with the land.
Designed to integrate into its site’s naturally steep topography, the Silver Summit residence steps with the landscape, nestling comfortably into the mountainside. The result is three levels, each separated from the next by a mere half flight of stairs, making for easier mountainside living and less stair climbing at high altitudes.
While the front of the home maintains a low profile to integrate into the landscape, the rear façade rises above the rugged vegetation to capture mountain views and the winter sun warmth. Upon entry into the home, guests are introduced to a distant view framed through a double-story height window in the foyer. Spilling into the living space, sweeping panoramic views dominate the room. The roof plane floats on a ribbon of clerestory windows that wrap the entire space, flooding it with light and nature.
Where the upper floor steps back from the lower floor, a rooftop living deck flanked with mountains opens up to further take advantage of distant vistas. With dramatic cantilevered overhangs, outdoor heaters, and a fire pit, the roof deck becomes a three-season extension to the indoor living room via large pocketing glass panels.
The master wing, complete with its own media space, office, and laundry, becomes a private self-contained area, functional and appropriately proportioned for a couple whose children have left the nest. The stepping of the home was strategically executed with precise siting in order to lower excavation and retaining costs, reduce site disturbance, and minimize impact to the natural vegetation – indeed, less is more.
