Mountain Magic: A Modern Take on The Ski House
October 23, 2013
A Vermont vacation home has all the familiar ski-house design elements, from its stone façade to its fir paneled interior walls. Still, this family get-away is anything but predictable.
Text by Robert Kiener   Photography by Jim Westphalen    Produced by Karin Lidbeck Brent
âMountain modern.â Thatâs how Marcus Gleysteenâs clients described the vacation home they wanted him to design for their thirty-nine-acre lot in Stowe, Vermont. âAnd they had another request,â recalls the Boston-based architect. âThis was their dream home and they wanted it to look âcool.ââ
Gleysteen understands cool. Because this was a second home, he had the freedom to, as he explains, âpush the design envelope.â He had worked with the couple on their more-traditional primary residence, in Brookline, Massachusetts, and knew they were open to new ideas. Over a series of meetings, he and his clients went back and forth, or âpushed and pulled,â as he says, as they honed the design.
âIt was a real collaboration,â says the husband, a Boston-based financial executive. âWe often looked at a design and said to Marcus, ââThatâs good, but can you make it cooler?ââ
The result, a fourâbedroom, two-level contemporary mountain house, is certainly cool. Itâs also innovative, elegant, and evocative of what Gleysteen refers to as the âVermont vernacular.â âWe didnât want to design just another ski house, a chalet, or something that looked like a suburban house with a bunch of massive logs around the front door,â the architect says. âAnd we especially didnât want the house to look like it was on steroids.â
Taking his inspiration from abandoned buildings he has seen throughout New England, Gleysteen designed the house to resemble what he calls âa collection of buildings that grew up together naturally; a kind of mini-village.â
He incorporated familiar design elements such as a stone facade, gently bowed entry bridge, asymmetrical gables, and shed roofsâall details found in New England architecture. To tie all these elements together âlike connective tissue,â he designed the novel, metal-strapped timber-frame system.
To further reduce the mass of the 8,000-plus-square-foot home, he and the owners decided to separate the master bedroom and bath from the first-floor main living areaâs great room and kitchen. It is connected via that quintessential element of the Vermont vernacular, a covered bridge, that mimics the homeâs main entryway. The lower level contains three additional bedrooms and baths for the ownersâ three children, a TV/recreation room, and a utility room.
Gleysteen and his clients turned to Burlington, Vermontâbased landscape architect H. Keith Wagner to help site and landscape the home. âWe excavated some of the hillside so the house could sit more comfortably into the sloping lot,â says Wagner. âAnd we added a dry ravine that âflowsâ in front of the home and curves under the covered bridge to the bedroom. Both are very organic ways to help break up the mass of the house.â
Wagner filled the ravine with an assortment of native sedges, red twig dogwood, river birch, and other plants one might find near a mountain stream.
The excavation also allowed Gleysteen to flood the ground-floor level with light via floor-to-ceiling windows. âThat was critical,â he says. âWe didnât want the lower level to have the feel of a walk-out basement.â
Filling the home with natural light and exploiting the spectacular Vermont mountain views were also important to the owners. âWeâd seen too many mountain homes that didnât take advantage of remarkable views,â the husband explains. The home invites the outside in via a series of massive, floor-to-ceiling windows. There are dramatic views of Stoweâs ski mountain and, in the distance, the Trapp Family Lodge.
While the homeâs exterior is a blend of modern and traditional, the interior feels much more contemporary. Stowe builder Steve Sisler points out the soaring, Douglas firâpaneled cathedral ceilings, the oversize windows, and ultramodern elements such as gray concrete kitchen countertops and stainless steelâclad drawers and appliances. âMarcus and the owners wanted a clean, sleek look inside,â Sisler explains. âI think they got exactly that.â The radiant-heated floors are American walnut, and most of the interior paneling is clear verticalâgrain Douglas fir.
Even what Sisler terms the homeâs âmodified timber frameâ got a modern touch. Inspired by the ownersâ desire for something different, Gleysteen designed bold, black metal strappingâstraps, saddle knife plates, and through boltsâthat joins the timbers together. âThe black strapping is like jewelry,â explains Gleysteen, who studied sculpture at Cooper Union before turning to architecture. âIt creates a much finer sculptural sense of scale.â It also is practical; it helps to conceal the seasonal expansion and contraction of the massive timbers.
Sisler is known for his attention to detail, and it shows in this home. Running his hand over perpendicular paneled wall surfaces, he smiles and asks, âDid you notice thereâs no trim? We carefully mitered the two walls to meet exactly, without the need for trim. Itâs cleaner.â
Many surfaces are flush, and built-ins abound. Sisler and Gleysteen covered up many structural elements with paneling to make them look like faux timbers, a device the architect has dubbed âtrimber.â
Because the owners loved the homeâs strong interior architectural elements, they have kept furniture and furnishings to a minimum. âWe didnât want to obscure the details,â says the husband. They enlisted Gleysteen to design their platform bed, coffee table, dining table, and storage system, all of which were built by Sislerâs craftspeople.
Thereâs no better example of the detail and collaboration that went into this home than the massive, four-sided granite fireplace that dominates the interior. Sisler, Gleysteen, and mason Matt Parisi combed through slag piles of abandoned granite at a local quarry in search of just the right shapes for the fireplaceâs mantel, lintel, and hearthstone.
âI wanted the fireplace to look more like the Matterhorn, full of nooks, crags, and crannies that reflected light, than like a giant hunk of stone,â explains Gleysteen. Based on his clientsâ reaction, he and his team succeeded.
âFor a fireplace,â say the owners, âitâs very cool. Just like the rest of the house.â â˘
Architecture: Marcus Gleysteen, Marcus Gleysteen Architects
Landscape design: H. Keith Wagner, Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture
Builder: Steve Sisler, Sisler Builders
Share
You must be logged in to post a comment.