Search Results for: guest house

Nine Ways to Elevate a Guest House

April 28, 2026 by Circ

Architects and designers share ideas that will take your guest house to the next level.

Fair warning: your guests might not want to leave.

Story
Dina Mishev

1. Enhance Amenities

While staying at a client’s guest house in Maine, Rush Jenkins, co-founder of Jackson-based WRJ Design, found every drawer thoughtfully organized and stocked with anything a guest might have forgotten. “It felt as though every possible need had been anticipated before you even realized it,” says Jenkins about the guest house, which was not a WRJ project. Shannon White Burns, who founded Shannon White Design in 2008, likes to include amenities that guests don’t even know that they want, like books about wildlife, birds, or Jackson Hole history. “If the guest house is a log cabin, maybe have some photography books of cabins around the world,” she suggests. But you don’t want too much. “You want to keep a guest house edited enough that guests don’t feel like they’re in the living room in someone’s house. A great guest house should feel uncluttered, so there is space to be and have some visual calm.”

2. Plan for Plenty of Storage

Encourage guests to really settle in by giving them space to store all of their stuff. Do this without diminishing the size of rooms with custom built-ins. “A guest house is like a boat—you have to use every space,” says architect Shawn Ankeny, who founded Ankeny Architecture and Design in 2005. For the primary suite of a guest house, Ankeny designed built-in closets on either side of the bed (shown here). Window nooks are another option that serve a dual purpose. In addition to offering storage, they can also provide additional seating or even an extra bed.

3. Curate Coziness

Both Ankeny and White Burns have a soft spot for remaking historic cabins into guest houses. “There is something so iconic and cozy about a little cabin,” White Burns says. If this isn’t an option, consider a wood-burning stove or fireplace, or an interior materials palette that includes natural materials. In an Ankeny guest house, the living room includes a fireplace with a stone surround. The wall the fireplace is in is shared with the primary bedroom. Ankeny could have designed a regular wall on the bedroom side, but instead, she carried over the stone from the surround in the living room. “That made the bedroom feel cozier,” she says. Reclaimed wood can evoke a similar feeling. “There are properties where the main house is more contemporary, but the guest house is all wood on the inside,” Ankeny says.

4. Make It Feel Bigger

A paradox of guest houses: they’re small—Teton County building codes require they be less than 1,000-square-feet—but you want them to feel spacious. “Anything you can do to make a guest house feel more generous is helpful,” architect Ankeny says. This can be done with vaulted ceilings, expansive porches, and big windows that go to the floor. Most expansive of all? Have windows that go to the floor with an adjacent porch.

5. Make It a Destination

Ankeny loves when a property offers the opportunity to site a guest house so that it has its own sense of place. “Because guest houses are small, you can tuck them into cool spots, like a stand of trees or by a creek,” she says. “A guest house that is in its own special place on a property feels like a destination that people want to spend time in.” An added benefit of a guest house off on its own is that it can be connected to the main house and parking by a rustic path, “which makes the experience more interesting,” Ankeny says. Shown here is a Ward | Blake Architects guest house connected to the main house by a pathway.

6. Proper Proportions

Logan Leachman, owner/partner at JLF Architects says that the firm’s clients increasingly desire guest houses to include the same level of detail as the main house. “We’re bringing the same level, or even enhanced, detailing as in the larger house into this smaller package,” he says. “The trick is not to repeat the details at the same scale, since guest houses are smaller spaces.” For example—you can’t just repeat the same size roof overhang as is on the larger home on a smaller structure. A guest house kitchen can have all of the same appliances as the main house, but scaled back to fit the needs of someone who might only be there for several days. “When proportions are correct, a space has a relaxing, calming feeling, but when they’re out of whack, it just doesn’t feel calming,” Leachman says. In a disproportioned space, you might not be able to put your finger on why you don’t feel comfortable, “but you know it when it happens,” Leachman says.

7. Go for The Bedroom Suite

Over the last decade, guest bedrooms in main houses have increasingly been designed as suites. Do the same with bedrooms in the guest house. Meredith Leonard, director of operations and interiors at Farmer Payne Architects, says clients are increasingly asking for bedroom suites in their guest houses. “Our clients take pride in their homes and want their guests to have an elevated experience,” she says. WRJ’s Jenkins sees the same thing: “Most of the guest houses we design include two suites, sometimes a primary suite paired with a bunk room, and other times two equally appointed suites to comfortably accommodate either families or couples traveling together.”

8. Allow for Independent Living

“Clients increasingly want guest houses that include all the amenities of independent living, a true home away from the main home,” WRJ’s Jenkins says. “A well-designed guest house borrows from the best parts of a luxury hotel experience, but it also goes beyond it. A guest house gives homeowners the ability to extend hospitality with privacy and ease. Friends or family can stay on the property without being underfoot in the main house, creating a generous and effortless experience for everyone.” Set guests up to be self-sufficient with a well-appointed kitchen (including a stocked coffee station), a washer and dryer, and a dedicated desk area. Interior designer White Burns says that when a guest house is set up so guests can be completely self-sufficient, you’re giving them a gift: “Then they have the luxury of visiting the main house on their own terms.”

9. Connect to Nature

“Airflow is a detail guests consistently appreciate,” Jenkins says. “In Jackson especially, the ability to open windows and let in fresh mountain air, even in winter, makes the experience feel grounded in nature.” Another way to do this is with windows and porches. A Ward | Blake Architects-designed guest house (shown here) has a living room with floor-to-ceiling windows. “It allows the space to flow and connect to outside,” says firm principal Tom Ward.

Three Takes on the Guesthouse

April 14, 2016 by Circ

“It’s a see-through house,” remarked one of John Carney’s clients when he visited the couple’s Fish Creek Compound and saw their guesthouse for the first time. The architect clustered two bedrooms and bathrooms on either corner of the slim structure, leaving the central living space transparent and sensorially open to its setting.

Story By
Kirsten Rue

Photos By
Tuck Fauntleroy
Matthew Millman
Roger Wade

When you live in Jackson Hole, friends and family will want to visit you. That’s simply a fact. And, indeed, for many homeowners, expanding families are exactly what lead to the need for a place to house them—comfortably, in privacy—on one’s own property. Enter: the guesthouse. Constrained by zoning requirements that usually limit a secondary building on one lot to 1,000 square feet or less, Jackson Hole architects must find ways to work innovatively within the restraints of size and site to create harmonious buildings that meld with the main house and the lifestyles of family.
Here are three altogether different—altogether successful—approaches.

The guesthouse complements the original home in material selection, orientation, and shape. “The roof slopes are all evocative of the main house—extending them off to the east. It’s the same vocabulary, the same organic flow,” says Ward.

1 | THE JUMPING-OFF POINT

Carney Logan Burke principal John Carney’s guest home began with a wooded lot on Fish Creek Road. An irrigation ditch slanted through the property and a rich bouquet of aspen, pine, balsam, and fern—plus Sleeping Indian views— gave the lot a sense of lightness and boreal texture that differed from a dark pine forest. “We just fell in love with the site,” Carney says.

Usually, a homeowner begins first with the main house, but in this case, Carney and his wife, Elaine, began with the guest home. From the beginning, they’d referred to the project as their “Fish Creek Compound,” so a variety of structures were always in the master plan. The two walked the site frequently, sometimes surveying from a boulder to get a real sense of the lay of the land. “We knew we wanted the stream to play a major part in the house,” he says.

“You can’t just open up your whole house, but we try to have this balance between shelter—feeling protected—and being able to have views and this connection to nature,” Carney says.

They settled on an orientation that runs against the contours of the sloped site rather than with them. After a series of designs, the team narrowed it down to one building spanning 16 feet in width, crowned by a simple, angled shed roof. Goal No. 2 was to introduce the sensations of the forest as much as possible. “We came up with the ultimate design that came out of the hill as a long, thin building and is totally symmetrical—completely open in the middle with the living-dining-kitchen—so you just see light through it,” says Carney.

The guesthouse feels anything but small. Sun paths brushing the walls and floors add grain and depth to the airy primary living space. Because the Carneys planned to live in the house themselves while designing their main house, they installed more closet space in the bedrooms that mirror each other on either side of the column and devoted a full 12 feet to the open kitchen lining one wall.

“We just had a very disciplined approach to design. All the windows and doors stop at 8 feet. All the windows go all the way to the ground, except for the punched openings in the hallway and bathrooms.”

The materials of the guest home and detached garage are also simple: board- formed concrete, cedar shingles, bonderized steel, and glass. The slant of the roof and a 6-foot overhang on all sides distribute snow loads and protect the structure, despite the roof’s thinness.

“I think the connection to nature is the thing that people love about the house,” Carney says. “When you’re in those corner bedrooms, the window is less than 3 feet from the foot of the bed. You really feel like you’re camping in the woods.”

The Carneys lived in the guest home for three years while their main house was designed and constructed—now, they have ceded it to visiting guests and grandkids, but its lessons in focused living continue to resonate.

“I think that having the discipline of designing for small spaces makes you better even when you’re not constrained,” Carney says. The dictum to be reductive in the selection of materials, to simplify spaces, and think about what a structure should do—what it should welcome. All of this contributes to the serendipitous quality the home has, perched at the crook of a stream in the bucolic woods.

2 | THE LATER ADDITION

For this guest home designed by Ward + Blake Architects on 3 1?2 acres of open prairie land, the story is a classic one: After seven years, the homeowners’ family simply outgrew the main house. “Our goals were to finish what was an embryo of a design idea when we originally designed the house, which was to complete the existing courtyard,” explains architect Tom Ward. As a result, they envisioned a design that would in fact cut about 4 1?2 feet below the existing grade of the property to create the driveway that approaches the guesthouse, leaving pristine view corridors undisturbed.

Ward + Blake considered the guest home and existing home as a unified pair, and selected the same reclaimed- wood exteriors and hand-fabricated steel cladding for the guest home; over time, the unfinished steel will mottle to a patina that calls back to the fac?ade of the primary residence.

“If you’re working with a small amount of floor area, there’s a need to unify the spaces to create a sense of spatiality—break the functions into discrete rooms,” Ward says. Ward + Blake combined living room, office space, dining, kitchen, and entry into one simple, linear shape, which served the dual purpose of completing the square of the original compound’s design. Cabinetry of vertical-grain Douglas fir helps to demarcate the spatial transitions and give a sense of seamlessness to the great room’s flow. This creates one big, lifted space that “you can transition through at your own pace.”

The guest home’s entry forms another hub where doorways to bedrooms and bathrooms are located—the rest simply stretches forward in front of the eye, inviting an evolving generation of family living.

If you’re working with a small amount of floor area, there’s a need to unify the spaces to create a sense of spatiality.”
– Tom Ward of Ward + Blake Architects

3 | THE CABIN HOMAGE

One historic national park structure in Yellowstone inspired this log cabin guest home addition—the Madison Museum designed by Herbert Maier in 1929 and since designated part of a National Historic Landmark. The homeowners fell in love with the National Park Service rustic look, and Ellis Nunn Architects delivered on a classic, 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath cabin, complete with massive stone corners and a stone fireplace.

As project architect John Kjos explains, the firm made many intriguing discoveries as they updated the 1920s aesthetic for 21st-century occupants. “Instead of peeling the logs,” he says, “which can give you a uniformly light-colored look,” they chose to use a skip peel. The process of prying off the bark instead of peeling it is “more like the techniques of 100 years ago—that helps achieve a really rustic, authentic feel.”

Another detail that lends historic authenticity is the use of real wood windows instead of aluminum-clad panes. However, Kjos says, “I went for a thin roof profile,” which is an advantage of modern building in contrast to the museums that served as the cabin’s inspiration. Historically, the need to batten in from the elements meant much thicker and more substantial roofs on log buildings.

The cabin Ellis Nunn Architects designed has two porches—one facing south and one facing north. The team placed the larger rocks at the base of the structure, decreasing in size as they got closer to the building. Yellowstone National Park builders and architects often used rubble at the base of the buildings they designed to organizationally tie them to the landscape.

Ceilings of reclaimed wood with a small gap between the ceiling and the wall logs; Montana fieldstone (in place of the rhyolite that Yellowstone builders once sourced on-site); and a beautifully crafted door made by Yellowstone Traditions continue the guest home’s aesthetic of rugged warmth, perfectly suited to its wooded setting. In fact, the master bedroom was voted one of “20 Coziest Bedrooms” on Houzz.com.

Bigger? Not always better—as these three ingenious interpretations of extra living quarters so amply demonstrate.

The Forever House

July 16, 2025 by Circ

Ankeny Architecture and Design and Helius Lighting Group collaborate on an East Jackson home informed by the clients’ deep understanding of what they want.

Story
Dina Mishev
Photos
Melinda Duquette

Ankeny Architecture and Design
ARCHITECTURE
ankenyarchitecture.com

Willow Creek Woodworks, Inc.
WOODWORK
willowcw.com

Helius Lighting Group
LIGHTING
heliuslighting.com

A couple living in East Jackson’s Gill Addition, a cozy and family-friendly neighborhood tucked between Broadway Avenue and the National Elk Refuge, came to architect Shawn Ankeny of Ankeny Architecture and Design looking to design and build their forever house. While they wanted a new house, they didn’t want a new neighborhood; they had purchased a double lot close to their existing home. “They knew where they wanted to be, and, from prior renovations and new builds they had done, they knew what they needed and wanted in the home they planned to spend the rest of their lives in,” says Ankeny, who founded her eponymous firm in 2005.

While the couple knew what they wanted, “it was a challenging site,” the architect says. “It faced three streets, including busy Broadway.” Siting the more private entrance side of the house up against the Gill Addition neighborhood and orienting the larger back windows out toward Broadway Avenue and Snow King views was an easy choice. “And then we’d have a nice buffer of landscaping between the back of the house and Broadway,” Ankeny says.

While the clients wanted a fireplace, they did not want a double-sided fireplace. “The client didn’t want the fireplace coming into the kitchen,” architect Shawn Ankeny says. “She preferred to have more space and more display space, so we came up with the built-in piece that Willow Creek Woodworks’ Jaxon Ching made on the back of the fireplace stone volume.”

The stone in the great room—on the fireplace and the wall opposite it—is the same stone as on parts of the home’s exterior. “Natural stone, white oak floors, painted trim to match the walls, and strategically placed reclaimed ceiling beams—a limited materials palette is easy on the eyes and has a very warm, zen feeling,” Ankeny says.

Inside, the couple knew they wanted the kitchen, great room (with a wood-burning fireplace), and primary suite on the first floor. They wanted the latter to have an oversize walk-in closet and his-and-hers bathrooms that opened to each other. The second floor has a sitting room with a covered terrace and a guest suite. Ankeny devised the house as two staggered “bars”—one with the one-story primary suite and the other with the two-story guest suite—connected by a one-story great room and entry. “The building itself is not symmetrical, but it is balanced, and elements inside of it, like the great room, are symmetrical,” Ankeny says. “The home has clean lines, lots of natural light, and a limited and natural materials palette.”

“The home has clean lines, lots of natural light, and a limited and natural materials palette.”
—shawn ankeny, ankeny architecture and Design

The Heart of the House

Early in the design process, there was no doubt that the heart of this home would be the great room, even if the clients instructed Ankeny not to make it “too big.” Anchored by stone-clad walls at either end—one of these is the requested fireplace—the long sides are glass. Each of these glass walls is three doors that slide open. “The permeable sides let the landscape in, but in winter you can keep the doors closed and feel cozy,” Ankeny says. Helius Lighting Group’s program in this space emphasizes the twin stone-clad walls. “The lighting is focused on the two key end walls. This emphasizes this architectural element while allowing the rest of the room to remain soft and cozy,” says Jarron Pew, a partner at Utah-based Helius Lighting Group. Auto shades with integrated pockets line the glass sides.

Adjacent to the great room is a bar. “The clients love entertaining,” Ankeny says. “A bar where they could do this was an important space, and it serves as a connection between the great room and more private sitting room.”

Although based in Utah, Helius Lighting Group does the majority of its work, which is primarily in luxury residential and commercial spaces, in Jackson Hole. “We’re really focused on serving architects and interior designers,” Pew says. “Everything is geared around helping the architecture come to life the way the architect wants it to while also reflecting the client’s priorities.”

High Ceilings

“The clients really wanted 12-foot ceilings everywhere,” says Ankeny, who had never done that in a project before. (“Usually I have step-down halls and lower ceilings in bedrooms,” the architect says.) “It gives the house a very grand feeling and just lets in so much light.” Scaled to match the ceiling height, a 12-inch-tall baseboard was used throughout the home. All of the natural light worked well with the client’s ask that there be minimal recessed and architectural lighting. “This was a unique project because the client really loves table lamps and is comfortable with them providing most lighting,” Pew says. “Recessed lighting was kept to a minimum to provide simple accents, or to focus on needed tasks. Generally, this project has less recessed lighting, which provides a softer feel.”

There is one area with nine-foot ceilings, the breakfast nook. “It’s not that the ceilings here are low, but the difference between this space and the rest of the house just makes this space that much more intimate,” Ankeny says.

The path to the house in both the front and back yards is not linear, but has a jog in it. “I like the feeling of not walking straight into the house. It’s a small move, but it makes it feel like you’re exploring as you go in,” Ankeny says.

For the Dogs

A fun, and not a wholly unusual, request in Jackson Hole where homeowners really love their dogs was for all of the rooms on the main floor to open to the outside and for windows to go down to the floor. “The house had to open to the outside from the primary suite, the great room, the kitchen, and the dining room for the dogs,” Ankeny says. “And they wanted a big backyard for the dogs, which was nice because it also put the house farther from Broadway, which is a busy street.” Why windows to the floor? “So the dogs can see out,” Ankeny says.

Hidden in Plain Sight

The clients wanted most things built-in. “There are cabinets in almost every room,” Ankeny says. “And they really contribute to the contemporary nature of the house. Everything can be hidden behind flush cabinets.” Even lights are hidden in the cabinets. “In the primary closet, Jaxon [Ching, of Willow Creek Woodworks] built lights into the millwork instead of us planning for fixtures on the outside aimed in,” Pew says. In the kitchen, lighting in the display case makes it a decorative feature of what Pew says could have been a dark hole. “The integral cabinet lighting brings depth to the room instead of it being a cabinet wall that is a light void. [Jaxon] did a great job,” Ankeny says.

Be A Guest In Your Own Home

June 28, 2021 by Circ

The exposed, black I-beams and clear, vertical-grain red cedar, with a flat, protective coating, extending above the porch bring the outside in.

Story By
JULIE FUSTANIO
Photos By
KRAFTY PHOTOS

ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN ASSOCIATES
NEWWESTFURNITURE.COM

FURNISHINGS
WILD WEST DESIGNS
DAJH.COM

The rule of threes is as common in architecture as it is in writing. The writing principle that states that three characters, like the Three Little Pigs or Three Musketeers, are more effective in emphasizing an idea is also effective in design.

In the case of this guesthouse built south of Jackson, three elements distinguish its remarkable design: a simple, c-channel steel frame; a vertical, reclaimed wood exterior; and clear, vertical-grain red cedar in both the ceiling and key outdoor places, such as the underside of the deck overhang and the soffit above the modern metal door.

“This look needs enough lines to make the shape work,” says architect Chris Lee. “The relief on the roof and the step of the beams are all important.”

Design Associates is one of the oldest architecture firms in Jackson. John Morgan started it in the late 1960s in response to Paul McCollister’s desire to build a ski resort. He quickly added Vince Lee, a young draftsman who was also a climber, former U.S. Marine and passionate student of the lost world. (Lee later became one of the world authorities on Incan architecture.)

Chris Lee and his father, Vince

The firm exists today because Chris Lee took over in 2000 for his father, who he calls Indiana Jones. He and his wife, Kathy, hiked 100 miles along the Inca Trail with his parents before Google Maps existed.

“Solving a design is like a Sudoku puzzle,” he says. “Deducing a good plan and pulling it into 3-D—that passion I got from my dad.”

“I don’t know if there are rules, but four things are too many, and three things work really well,” says Chris Lee, principal architect of Design Associates.

His clients—a family of four—plan to live in this guesthouse until construction of the main house is complete. Lee adapted easily to the look
they wanted, drawing on the style of homes in Martis Camp, a lodge near
Lake Tahoe. The result, built by JH Builders, is an efficient, 1,000-square-foot building that lives as well on the inside as it does on the outside. A wraparound porch with big overhangs has discreetly hidden screens and built-in heaters in the outer beams, enabling enjoyment of the private pond in comfort.

The materials of this steel-framed jewel box are sculpted into a butterfly
roof with long lines to create an envelope that is super insulated from the harsh Jackson Hole winters. Lee imported Bildau & Bussmann windows from Germany, because of their R-value (thermal resistance), and installed in-floor hydronic heat.

“The best architecture is the simplest,” he says. “With a guesthouse, you have to be economical, because every little bit counts. You can sketch this house in nine seconds. Once it gets a hold of you, it’s like a language.”

A Housewarming

April 19, 2017 by Circ

INTERIOR DESIGN
WRJ DESIGN
WRJDesign.com

ARCHITECTURE
RICHARD KEATING
KeatingArchitecture.com

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
VERDONE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
VerdoneLandArch.com

Story By
Katy Niner

Photos By
Ed Riddell

Is contemporary intrinsically cold? That was the concern of a couple when they found an architectural masterpiece in Alta, Wyoming. Designed by skyscraper architect Richard Keating, the striking structure felt like a stretch for them, their East Coast roots and their predilection for mission-style furniture. “I thought it was absolutely gorgeous, but the house was essentially all steel, cement and glass,” one of the homeowners says.

They turned to their friend Rush Jenkins, CEO of WRJ Design, for advice. His counsel ultimately became the deciding factor in their decision to purchase the 70-acre estate.

“Our caveat was: Can modern be warm?” the homeowner says. “Rush assured us that it can be. He told us: ‘I promise you I can make your house feel like a home.’ That’s what convinced us to pursue a purchase.”

From the moment Jenkins glimpsed the house—cutting a daring silhouette above the rolling Teton Valley—he knew it would become a capstone project. Drawing on his background in both landscape architecture and interior design, he believed the residence represented a singular opportunity to design a holistic schema in communion with the setting.

“We consider every element in our design by envisioning a world that transcends the distinct components,” Jenkins says. “Everything must come together to create a calm, tranquil environment in harmony with their surroundings.”

Contextual complement

Honoring Keating’s angular architecture and its roofline reflection of the jagged Tetons, Jenkins imagined the interiors as a warm complement by channeling the wheat fields below the bold home. Also conscious of context, Keating had referenced Alta’s agrarian setting by using the corrugated metal sheathing silos and sheds to create a clean, minimalist stage for an interior vision.

Jenkins and WRJ Design Director Nida Zgjani rose to the occasion with an eloquent plan that proved worthy of the architectural statement Keating had made. Upon installation, Keating wrote Jenkins: “I wanted to relate how much I appreciate your firm’s work and the quality of interior design that the house never achieved in the prior owners’ time. … Please pass on to your team my appreciation and thanks.”

Harmony is the essence of WRJ—the foundation of our design philosophy.
~ RUSH JENKINS

Keating had sited the house in a particularly dramatic location, with endless views west and south. By his placement, the house serves as an amphitheater for nature: storms rolling in from the west, the wind whispering through the tawny waves of wheat, the fields changing hues with the seasons. “The house is immersed in the beauty of movement and seasonal change,” Jenkins says.

Thus inspired, he pulled this palette inside: the whites and grays of winter as upholstery, the wheat color from the fields as wood finishes, the azure of the endless bluebird sky as accents, the rich brown of the fertile soil as anchoring elements.

“The architecture is obviously a statement,” Jenkins says. “The interiors must communicate with the architecture, but also the landscape. All three elements must speak to each other and, through this open dialogue, achieve an overall harmony. As a designer, I consider the full circle: the architecture, the landscape, the interior. If you get that dynamic right, the house feels harmonious. Harmony is the essence of WRJ—the foundation of our design philosophy. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to have a place where you can retreat and feel nurtured.”

Graceful sanctuary

Attuned to art, Jenkins incorporated key pieces from the homeowners’ collection, including a landscape painting by their friend and Teton Valley neighbor Scott Christensen. The lustrous oil painting now lives within the entrance hall, its rich composition tying into the textured leather-and-bronze BDDW console—one of the first pieces picked for the house—and a pair of bubble sconces from Paris found at Ralph Pucci in New York. This serene vignette serves as an interior threshold, setting the tone for the rest of the house: for the majesty to unfold in the open living area, for the tranquility achieved throughout the interior. “Like the unfurling mystery of nature, the house reveals itself in moments,” Jenkins says.

Generous philanthropists, the homeowners needed living spaces capable of staging charitable events with many guests, but also cozy evenings with their family. The resulting living room flows with grace between seating and dining areas. Honoring their more traditional past, Jenkins chose several key pieces that translate the gravitas of classic furnishings into sleek shapes, such as the Holly Hunt seamless dining table in a deep walnut and the June Ho game table with its solid bronze trunk and white top.

To complement the concrete floors, Jenkins blended in gray, bamboo-silk rugs by Ralph Lauren, low-pile masterpieces that nearly disappear. Rife with such careful pairings, the home feels harmonious. “Your home is your sanctuary, the place you go to escape the troubles of the world,” Jenkins says. “Your home should rejuvenate you.”

Two enclaves, in particular, issue invitations to relax and restore. The first is the circle of Janus et Cie handwoven armchairs on the veranda, ergonomic designs that encourage sinking into (no pillows necessary). Guests can sit, sink and soak up the vista with a cup of tea or glass of wine, listening to the owls perched on the fence posts, tracing the pathway that leads to a fire pit imagined by WRJ’s COO, Klaus Baer. The other memorable moment lives inside, in the window bays Jenkins upholstered and plumed with pillows from Turkey. Loro Piana silk-and-linen drapes frame the bay, creating the perfect place to page through a book.

Luminous landscaping

Echoing WRJ’s approach, Brannon Bleggi, of Verdone Landscape Architects, set out to ground and soften the concrete, steel and glass structure without tethering its transcendent architecture. “We wanted to make it seem like it was floating in a sea of native grasses and plants, so that you see bits of the concrete poking up above, like waves lapping against a boat.” This sense of soft movement honored the structure’s form while simultaneously better integrating it with its surrounds. “The big thing was to showcase what the site had to offer,” Bleggi says.

The original overgrown shrubbery had made the house feel dark and cold, so Bleggi prioritized light. Rather than break up the geometric lines of the structure itself, he allowed filtered sunlight through aspen stands to soften the angles.

The element of water was further cultivated by revealing the brook to the south, a natural waterway previously heard but not seen. “We went in and surgically plucked out and poked holes within view of this mass of willows. We opened up peekaboo views into the brook which changed the whole liveliness of the house.”

Like WRJ, Bleggi considered texture and palette. “The native plants played well with texture, while allowing sprinkles of color to rotate throughout the seasons.”

Your home should rejuvenate you.
~ RUSH JENKINS

Such intrigue endures: Having lived in the finished home for several years now, the homeowners feel entirely at peace in the space. The warmth they hoped to see in the final product was actually achieved throughout the process. “All projects like this are fun, but there’s always a certain amount of stress involved,” the homeowner says. “This project turned out to be just fun. Rush and Klaus removed the stress for us.”

The Jewel Box

April 30, 2026 by Circ

Rigorous planning and design create a guest house that lives big.

This guest house’s bedroom suite brings the outside in thanks to a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. The goal was different with the adjacent covered porch. “Here, we wanted to bring the inside out,” says architect Tom Ward. The porch, which is heated, is off the living room and doubles the size of that space. Both living rooms—indoor and out—are connected via a see-through, double-sided fireplace.

Story
The Homestead Team

Photos
Gabe Border

ARCHITECTURE
Ward | Blake Architects
wardblake.com

Out of all of the award-winning residential projects architect Mitch Blake has designed during his 40-plus-year career, a 960-square-foot guest house completed in 2024 is the one he most gravitates to. Designed and built simultaneously with a main house and a barn, this guest house has views and finishes that match those of the main house and, thanks to its own sense of place, a coziness that would be impossible in a larger house.

“It has absolutely everything you need, but in a small package,” says Blake, who co-founded Ward | Blake Architects with Tom Ward in 1996. Ward adds, “For all of the rigor and attention to detail in the design process, [this guest house] is very wearable. It’s not an uptight space, but a relaxed one. Even the owner talks about living in it instead of in the main house for a while.”

A butterfly roof allows for maximum mountain, and sky, views. “We didn’t want the roofline coming down and blocking the views,” architect Mitch Blake says. “The mountains are close. Tilting the roof up allowed us to capture the blue sky above the mountains.”

Joined, but not subservient

Like all well-designed guest houses, this one relates to the main house, which is 6,750 square-feet. “The two structures, and also the barn, have the same rhythms of structure and are similar in their architectural language,” Blake says. Additionally, the two houses are finished with the same materials and have the same type of windows, and the exposed exterior steel columns on both houses are the same design. “They were designed as a unit—to talk to each other,” Ward says.

But, barely visible from the main house and sited on the shore of a pond, the guest house also works on its own. Unlike most guest houses, it has views equal to those of the main house and, thanks to an irrigation ditch that Ward | Blake worked with landscape architects to turn into something closer to a creek, feels wholly separate. “I think you can be in the guest house and feel like you’re all by yourself on the property,” Blake says. “And the guest house itself feels like it belongs exactly where it is on the site.”

“Everyone talks about bringing the outside in, but here we wanted to bring the indoors out. The windows allow the space to flow outside.”

—Architect Tom Ward

Laying in bed in the sole suite in the guesthouse, you can open the shades to expose a wall of windows that frame the Tetons

Cataloging and capturing the views

Before starting the design process, Blake did what the firm always does: spent hours on the six-acre site at different times of the day over several months. The goal of this is not only to discover the range of views available, but also to get a sense of where and how the different buildings might engage with and utilize natural light. “I wanted to get a feel for what the light was like and how we might best capture views of the Teton Range and Wilson Faces, and the feeling of the way mountains surround the property,” Blake says.

Thoughtful site design gave the guest house the same expansive Teton views as available from the main house.

While the initial focus was on how the main and guest house would capture the property’s big views, the opportunities, and potential, offered by the foreground—the pond that helps make the guest house feel like its own experience and an existing berm—were also considered. “What we created with the pond and after we beefed up the berm, suddenly we developed an incredibly strong foreground,” Ward says.

While the guest house has mountain views, including of the ski slopes at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, when you’re in the living room, it is the pond and the wildlife that often wanders past it, that is most visually compelling. Ward | Blake designed this room with floor-to-ceiling glazing. These open to a heated porch. Just beyond the porch is the pond. “Here there is all this action in the foreground,” Ward says.

The End Result

“This guest house really gets used,” Blake says. “It is self-sufficient and feels so much bigger than it is because of the open plan and the floor-to-ceiling windows.” Ward adds, “Everyone talks about bringing the outside in, but here we wanted to bring the indoors out. The windows allow the space to flow outside.”

A small creek between the guest and main houses reinforces the feeling that the former is autonomous, a precious gift to guest.

Remodel Or Raze?

July 16, 2025 by Circ

As raw land in Jackson Hole gets more and more scarce, home buyers and owners increasingly find themselves asking whether it makes more sense to remodel or raze homes that sit on view-rich sites but don’t suit their life and/or style.

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Homestead Team

I always tell buyers to pick the best possible location because you can always change a house. In Jackson Hole today, land is the scarcity,” says Latham Jenkins, a broker with Live Water Properties who has been its national top producer and twice recognized by Real Trends as a top individual sales agent in Wyoming (number one in 2021 and number two in 2022). There are still vacant residential lots in the Town of Jackson and Teton County, but the easy-to-build-on lots are mostly already spoken for. “The lots with the best views are always the first ones to sell,” Jenkins adds. And most of these were sold and built on in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, when the area’s architecture and design aesthetic were different than what today’s homeowners want and need.

Buying a view-rich property with an existing home that doesn’t fit your style or program leaves you with two options: 1) remodeling or 2) removing the existing house and doing a new build. There are benefits and drawbacks to both, and the specifics of the existing home must also be considered. “You want to explore how thoughtful the design was and how well it was executed,” says Jamie Farmer, cofounder of Farmer Payne Architects. “If a home was enthusiastically designed and well-executed, it will maintain its value, even if styles change. Those are homes it might make sense to remodel, and they show why design is so important.”

This open and contemporary home was formerly a one-bedroom log cabin. To modernize it, the logs were painted black and the cabin was connected to what was formerly a detached garage by a new addition with lots of glass.

“The best way to bring character into a home is to remodel something that already has history and character.”
—Nada Jain, devoted remodeler of high-end family homes

But it’s not all about the existing house. Farmer says its design and construction need to be balanced with what clients require in the property. “As the scope of a project grows, the likelihood that the property’s highest value can be realized with a remodel diminishes. If you’re tearing a project down to the studs, the bones better be really good.” Before Farmer Payne goes for a gut remodel (or remove plus new build), they explore what Farmer calls a “surgical” remodel. “You can be selective and light on your feet and do just a handful of things and update materials to really enhance a space and achieve a more timeless design,” he says.

Here are a few other things to consider when making the decision about whether to remodel or remove an existing house.

Do you like a challenge?

“I would always say remodel,” says Nada Jain, who has done near-gut remodels on four luxury properties, including two in Jackson Hole. “I find the challenge of taking something that is already there and changing some things, and keeping others a more interesting process than starting with a blank slate, and it gives a house more personality and character.” Architect John Stennis, a principal at GYDE Architects, agrees. “While there can be cost savings in reusing a structure, what makes a remodel truly exciting is the challenge of renovation—bringing a client’s dreams and aspirations to life while preserving and building upon the existing character of a home,” he says.

“Remodels make sense when the structure is solid and aligns with the client’s vision, but if too much has to change, starting fresh becomes the better option.”
—John Stennis, principal at GYDE Architects

BEFORE

AFTER Architect Alison Price and interior designer Jacque-Jenkins Stireman collaborated to fundamentally change the way this home looks and functions. The client’s original ask was initially only for a larger kitchen. After visiting the house together, Price and Jenkins-Stireman suggested that the kitchen could be enlarged by opening it up to the adjacent-but-separate great room, which inspired the clients to ask for a lighter, brighter feeling throughout the home.

Jacque Jenkins-Stireman, who has been doing interiors in Jackson Hole homes for 27 years, 21 of these at her eponymous firm, says, “To be able to take something of quality and preserve and update it rather than creating the carbon footprint of a new build is something I love to do.” About a 4,456-square-foot home built in 2000 (and featured as a 2023 Homestead Dream Home) that she collaborated with Jenkins-Stireman to remodel, architect Alison Price says, “I am quite proud of how we evolved the story of this house—connecting the old with the new. It was a fun and deeply satisfying puzzle to solve.”

Sustainability

Carl Elefante, a former president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), once said, “The greenest building is … one that is already built.” Architect Stephen Dynia, who founded Dynia Architects in Jackson in the 1990s, says, “I’m conscious of waste. If I evaluate an existing home and see that it is well constructed, oftentimes you can find ways to really transform something.” Stennis adds, “From a sustainability perspective, there are inherent benefits to keeping existing homes.”

Gilday Architects (now GYDE Architects) revitalized a log cabin with modern additions.

Construction and demolition waste accounts for more than 40 percent of the U.S. waste stream. According to the EPA, in 2018—the most recent year for which statistics are available—the U.S. generated 600 million tons of construction and demolition debris. Of that, 90 percent was from demolition; the other 10 percent came from construction. (To put 600 million tons in perspective—that is about the weight of the Great Pyramid of Egypt or the total collective weight of all farm animals on Earth.)

If it’s not possible to remodel an existing home, consider deconstructing it or allowing it to be relocated rather than demolishing it. Deconstruction involves dissembling buildings into salvaged parts that can then be reused elsewhere. Over the past several years, municipalities including Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; and Boulder, Colorado, have even passed deconstruction ordinances that require certain types of buildings to be deconstructed rather than demolished.

“In the deconstruction world, we talk a lot about how we recycle cans, but then we throw away entire houses,” Anna Perks, founder of Perks Deconstruction, a Colorado company that specializes in taking apart a building piece-by-piece, told WBUR. “When we bulldoze, we are just completely wasting that material rather than giving it another life somewhere else. So, deconstruction is a way to transition to the circular economy, put that material back in the loop to get it reused.”

Even more sustainable than deconstruction is re-siting. Here in Jackson Hole, the group Shacks on Racks works to relocate and repurpose homes slated for demolition. Founded in 2018 by Esther Judge-Lennox, its mission is to match working families with homes planned to be demolished and, in the process, reduce waste. Shacks on Racks has helped relocate more than 40 homes, but that’s only a fraction of the number that have been demolished—more than 400 in the Town of Jackson alone since the town’s current permitting system began in early 2003. Teton County does not require demolition permits.

The Fabric of the Neighborhood

Renovation work can allow homeowners to work within the fabric of a neighborhood rather than erase it, maintaining a sense of place and history that can be lost in a complete rebuild. GYDE Architects worked with a homeowner to remodel and add onto a house built in East Jackson’s Gill Addition in 1955 by one of the early superintendents of the National Elk Refuge. “We focused on maintaining the character of the existing home while integrating additional square footage and modern aesthetics in a way that complemented the original structure,” Stennis says. One way character was maintained was cladding a 280-square-foot addition and elements of the main home, including a balcony off the over-garage guest house, in wood reclaimed from the 1955 structure.

BEFORE A 1990s ski chalet in Teton Village gets new life while still keeping its original character.

In Teton Village, where many older homes are ski chalets, GYDE worked with clients on their 1990s ski chalet. “Razing it was on the table at the beginning,” Stennis says. “In our studies we looked at whether we might accomplish their programmatic goals while retaining the existing structure. They loved the chalet style and wanted to keep that but also wanted enough updates that remodeling it was not the obvious solution.” In the end, GYDE kept the original home and came up with a design that built on its existing character and added more.

Some of the original siding from this ranch-style home built in 1955 was used as an exterior accent when it was remodeled in the early 2020s.

Homeowners off Fall Creek Road bought and remodeled the one-bedroom log cabin (plus a detached garage) on the hillside below their own home because “we looked down on it and drove by it every day and always thought it could become so much more,” says the couple, who have done new builds, additions to existing structures, and both gut and superficial remodels. “From the beginning, we wanted to remodel this home and not bulldoze it. We had a very specific idea of what we wanted to achieve—keep the original log cabin and combine it with a new modern structure.” About halfway through the project, their GC did ask if they’d consider bulldozing it, though. “He felt it would have been an easier road,” they say. But the couple stuck to their original plan, and the result “had so much more character than a new build would have had,” says Stennis, who was project manager on this remodel. To update the log cabin, the logs were painted black. “The log served as a counter element to the more modern connector that was added and, even though the logs were painted black, they had a warmth and character that you wouldn’t have gotten with walls painted black,” Stennis says.

Cost

Traditionally, there has been a cost advantage to remodeling over a full tear-down and new construction. “But with labor and material costs so high, that gap has really narrowed,” Stennis says, citing a current project the firm is working on. “Initially, we explored a big remodel and addition, but once we ran the numbers, the client realized that for about 20 percent more, they could build a brand-new home that met 100 percent of their goals instead of just 60 to 70 percent.

For those looking to maximize the investment value of their home, “new construction captures a premium here,” says real estate agent Jenkins. “New construction will almost always amplify the value of your investment, and with today’s costs, it might only be 5 to 10 percent more expensive than a complete remodel.”

Whether a remodel or new build, “anyone buying in this market needs to be in it for the long haul and ready to take on the costs of building in a remote mountain town with limited resources,” GYDE Architects’ Stennis says.

Creative Re-use

At Glorietta Trattoria, a concrete slab THAT was formerly a garage floor became the perfect base for a commercial wood-fired grill.

What has been Glorietta Trattoria since 2017 started out as a house in the early 1900s. “It had been added onto three different times,” says architect Jamie Farmer, cofounder of Farmer Payne Architects and the architect that helped the restaurant reimagine the space. At the start of the project, remodeling and razing the house were both on the table. “We went through it with a structural engineer and determined that it was salvageable and that we could make it work as a restaurant,” Farmer says.

Not only is the resulting remodel one of the coziest dining spaces in the valley—it really feels like you’re visiting the home of a fabulous Italian cook—but Farmer was able to make one of what could have been the space’s biggest idiosyncrasies into exactly what the restaurant needed. What had been the home’s garage had a concrete floor that could have been covered with tile or wood flooring, but the restaurant wanted a wood-fired grill/oven, which, for safety and structural reasons, had to sit on a structural concrete slab. “We came up with a solution that placed this in the old garage,” Farmer says. The next time you go to Glorietta, take a closer look at this oven. “The two openings—the fireplace and the entrance to the kitchen—were the two original garage doors,” Farmer says. “It is an interesting relic of the original design.”

Outbuildings Are In

June 26, 2024 by Circ

Purpose-built outbuildings are gaining in popularity.

Homeowners today aren’t just building guest houses to enhance their properties, but also creative studios, party barns, spiritual retreats, and more.

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HOMESTEAD TEAM

ackson Hole’s original outbuildings—barns and outhouses—were utterly pragmatic. Even so, early settlers did them with style. About one century ago, Wesley Bircher built an unknown number of Gothic-style barns with soaring, gabled roofs up and down Fish and Fall Creek Roads at the base of Teton Pass. (Today, it is believed about seven of these “Bircher barns” still stand; most are on private property, but the nonprofit Teton Raptor Center has two recently remodeled ones on its campus you can visit.) And, of course, there are the two Moulton barns on Mormon Row. In early 2024, an article in Cowboy State Daily described the T.A. Moulton barn as “one of America’s most emblematic images” and proclaimed it “without doubt the most photographed outbuilding in the world.”

One outbuilding can serve multiple purposes; this one includes guest quarters, a fitness area, a small garage for outdoor gear, and more.

Barns are still being built in Jackson Hole today, but the most popular type of outbuilding has long been a guest house. More recently, local homeowners are adding purpose-specific outbuildings—from party barns to gyms, creative studios, and meditation retreats. “There has been a clear increase [in these] in the last three years, really since Covid,” says Rush Jenkins, CEO and co-founder of WRJ Design. “People have been spending more time in their mountain homes and realized they want to have other gathering places separate from the main house.”

The process of leaving your house and going to another building is exciting, and, once you’re there, it can feel like you’ve left everything behind and gotten away.
—Architect Shawn Ankeny

Architect Shawn Ankeny, founder of Ankeny Architecture and Design, says outbuildings can be both exciting and peaceful. “The process of leaving your house and going to another building is exciting, and, once you’re there, it can feel like you’ve left everything behind and gotten away,” she says. says According to Eric Logan, principal at CLB Architects, outbuildings can also “bring a richness of experience” to a property and offer homeowners the opportunity to play with color, materials, or even theme. “Clients can take risks in outbuildings because there isn’t as much concern about them being as attended to as the main house,” says Jenkins, who has done outbuildings with ski and movie-poster themes. Outbuildings can still be pragmatic, too: greenhouses, sheds, and storage for the multitude of outdoor gear that is a part of Jackson Hole life. In short, outbuildings can be almost anything … even attached to a main house. And, massive acreage is not required.

Wilson homeowners combined a guest house, entertainment area, gym, and even outdoor gear storage into one beautiful space.

The owners of this 2,400-square-foot barn in Wilson approached WRJ Design to “create a beautiful interior,” says Jenkins. “They wanted us to make the second floor very welcoming and luxurious for guests as they visit and also asked us to create a sitting area in the exercise room that would feel like an intimate home space rather than a gym space,” he says. By including art in the space, as well as by using fabrics including cashmere, faux fur, and wool, the firm delivered. “A small structure that is beautifully designed can be super interesting within a property,” Jenkins says. “It creates more intimacy than a large structure can. Often, we find that people love being in the smaller spaces more.”

This art studio (shown below) is attached to, but not accessible from, the main home. A door on the front porch (shown here) provides access.

The art studio designed by GYDE Architects for an East Jackson home is not an outbuilding in the strictest sense—it is attached to the side of the home, which was built in 1955 by one of the early superintendents of the National Elk Refuge. But we count it as an outbuilding because you must exit the main home—go outside—to enter it. Also, because the property is only one-quarter of an acre in size, a detached outbuilding was not possible. “There are lots of ways to create ‘outbuildings,’” says Katherine Koriakin, principal at GYDE Architects. GYDE senior project designer Pip Barr says, “Having to leave your house, even if you only have to go to the front porch, creates a feeling of separation. Once you’re in the studio, you have no idea that the main house is on the other side of the wall.”

While GYDE worked to make the 280-square-foot studio separate from the house—you enter it from a door off the home’s front porch or via a door from the backyard—the firm also designed it so that it complemented the house. It is clad in the same wood, reclaimed from the 1955 structure, as other elements of the home, including a balcony off an over-garage guest house. “It was always the intention that the art studio enhanced the home,” Koriakin says. “It really finishes off the front porch area, but it is a refuge of its own.”

One of four buildings on the property, this writer’s studio offers a different experience of the site than the main house.

The owners of a 35-acre lot in Wilson didn’t come to CLB Architects looking for a compound that included multiple buildings. “We explored what was possible to do on the property from the county planning and zoning perspective and also from the neighborhood’s regulations, and we identified the opportunity to do four structures,” Logan says. “That led to this combination of house, guest house, writer’s studio (pictured above), and a spiritual building.” This grouping of buildings, in turn, allows the homeowners to experience their property and surrounding landscape in very different ways. Standing in the living room of the main house, “You see everything around,” Logan says. “You understand the context of the site very well. The writer’s studio, which is hanging on the edge of the trees, is the counterpoint to that. It’s like you’re in the forest—an opposite experience to the main house.”

A utilitarian potting shed is elevated when its colors and roof line match those of the main house.

“It’s nothing fancy,” say the owners of a recently completed home about this 120-square-foot potting shed in their backyard. “We wanted a utilitarian building where we could store all of our yard stuff instead of our garage. We like the garage to be clean.” Although architect Shawn Ankeny designed the main home, this potting shed was simple enough that the homeowners say they “just drew it up” with the builder. “We decided what size it needed to be, and we matched the roofline and colors of the main house,” they say. “We knew we wanted it to look similar to the house. We put it in the backyard so you see it when you go out the back kitchen door. We thought it would be nice to look at.” Inside there’s a counter, sink, and shelves purpose-built for storing the cushions of their outdoor furniture.

Family Ties

June 26, 2024 by Circ

Creating homes where multiple generations can—and want to—gather.

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HOMESTEAD TEAM

Covid didn’t create this desire, but it did amplify it,” says Kevin Burke, principal at CLB Architects, about clients wanting legacy homes that are gathering places for their families. Paul Bertelli, principal designer at JLF Architects says, “people started thinking in more depth about changing their lifestyle and raising and gathering their families in places that are less encumbered with all the world’s noise. They come to us looking to build homes where multiple generations can converge.”

Jackson Hole makes sense for such a gathering place because it has so many amenities and experiences that there will be something everyone will love, according to Latham Jenkins, a broker with Live Water Properties who has twice been recognized by Real Trends as a top individual sales agent in Wyoming. “It is attractive to multiple generations,” he says. “You wake up here and there is something to do for everyone.”

Collin Vaughn, an associate broker at Sotheby’s International Realty Jackson Hole, says, “The majority of families looking at legacy homes in Jackson Hole could do anything in the world, at any time. How do they coordinate that? When there’s a home base in Jackson, where the family spends every July or August, there’s no planning around schedules. The whole family just knows that is their time.” Vaughn has clients with 20-plus-member families that gather like this annually. “It is a significant event for them,” he says. “The kids and grandkids grew up spending time and having experiences, so the significance, unique nature of the property, and of this area is passed down through the generations. Family time in Jackson Hole is religious for them.”

Legacy homes don’t have to be ski-in/ski-out, but such a location is almost certain to appeal to younger generations.

But, as amazing as Jackson Hole is—with two ski areas, two national parks, the 3.4-million-acre Bridger-Teton National Forest, rafting and fishing on the Snake River, and wildlife often wandering through the backyard—legacy properties aren’t only about the location. Clients want homes that are comfortable for the entire family. “We’re always trying to right-size a house so that it can function for two people but accommodate the 20-person gathering,” CLB’s Burke says.

Designing for Connection

Legacy homes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are not only about families connecting with each other, but often also about inspiring families to connect with the outdoors.

Smaller bedrooms make for more family time. So do open and public spaces. “We often shrink the size of the bedrooms—realizing that you’re only sleeping in that room—and put more space into public spaces,” Bertelli says. “In terms of what those public spaces look like, it’s specific to the family. We do game rooms, libraries, movie rooms, exercise rooms, wine cellars, and the occasional billiard room.” In a legacy home near the Snake River, JLF did some of these and also substantial outdoor living spaces that include a full outdoor kitchen and a hidden observation deck. “Outdoor rooms are a component we increasingly see on wish lists of public spaces,” Bertelli says. “These are two- or three-season outdoor spaces, usually for dining, but also with barbecues and fireplaces.”

In a 7,500-square-foot project, CLB designed modestly sized bedrooms on the home’s lower level as a way of encouraging family members to congregate in the main living areas. In turn, these main living areas were designed to feel—and be—connected to the outdoors. “The clients wanted a legacy home that would get their three kids outside, so the design emphasizes a link to nature from every room,” Burke says. Indoor entertaining areas directly connect to outdoor spaces. CLB even created a network of trails on the 20-acre property. “The client had vivid childhood memories of spending time on his grandfather’s tree farm in western New Hampshire and wanted to create the opportunity for his own kids to experience the outdoors as they grow up and to create their own memories,” Burke says. The result is a home that encourages the family to connect to nature and each other.

Open indoor spaces also bring families together. “We haven’t done formal dining rooms in more than three houses in 15 years,” Bertelli says. Instead, the firm does dining areas that are open to kitchens and great rooms. “The concept of people cooking, dining, and enjoying a multi-use living room is a consistent and successful combination of spaces,” he says. “And it is a way of bringing the whole family together—some can be in the living room reading a book, but others are cooking, and they’re still connected.”

The Long View

You can’t put a price on bringing the family together.
—Latham Jenkins,
Broker with Live Water Properties

From the beginning of a multigeneration project, Bertelli works up masterplans that include where an addition or guest house(s) might be built in 15 or 20 years when the kids who are now in high school are married with kids of their own. “We really consider the ‘what-if’ components and what a program would look like for them.” For example, for a family with two kids that might each have kids of their own in 15 years, he might plan an addition that is a separate bedroom wing with at least two bedrooms and bathrooms that would be attached to the main house. “It’s not built until it’s needed, but from the beginning, we already know where it would go,” Bertelli says. A guest house can also serve this purpose. “About 75 percent of our clients build a guest house, and that guest house works very well for the second and third generations,” Bertelli says.

The long view isn’t only about planning, but also design and construction. “We’re trying to think beyond 20 or 30 years and design and build for permanence,” says Burke. Of course, a family dreams that a legacy home will be loved and used by many generations to come. “I see families buying these properties to serve as a nucleus for the extended family for generations,” Jenkins says. CLB’s Burke says, “We think of these homes as a 100- or 200-year residence that will last the test of time. We design in a way that is timeless and that doesn’t get dated.”

More than an Asset

Every site is a little different, and every family unit is different, but they’re all planning for the next generation.
—Kevin Burke,
Principal, CLB Architects

Any home in Jackson Hole is an asset, but a legacy home is more. It doesn’t just build wealth, but meaningful value for your family. Grandkids get to fish, hike, or ski with their grandparents. They see their first moose or bear. They camp with their siblings. Families even climb the Grand Teton together or hike the Teton Crest Trail. And then there are also quieter moments—watching a sunset over the Tetons while making s’mores at the outdoor fire pit, star gazing and marveling at the Milky Way from the observation deck, cooking dinner together using produce bought that morning at the Jackson Hole Farmer’s Market. “Ultimately these homes give parents what they all long for—the ability to spend more time with their adult children and grandchildren,” Jenkins says. “A legacy home in Jackson Hole is very experiential-based, and that’s how deep bonds and memories are created.”

A large lawn to play on, a pond in which to practice casting, an outdoor terrace for evening cocktails—all hallmarks of a home designed for multiple generations of a family.

Vaughn says, “Grandparents or parents know that if they don’t have something like this, it is hard to get everyone together, and more often than not, the home does very well as an asset, too.”

Comfy seating areas and game rooms are a must in homes designed to bring a family together.

MINDFUL BUILDING

June 5, 2023 by Scott Taylor

STACK HOMES IS REIMAGINING MODULAR HOMES WITH THOUGHTFUL DESIGN AND HIGH-QUALITY FINISHES, ALL FOR A FRACTION OF THE PRICE—AND BUILD TIME—OF TRADITIONALLY BUILT HOUSES.

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DINA MISHEV
Photos
DRE FREDEN

STACK HOMES
CONSTRUCTION
STACKHOMES.COM

The construction industry in Jackson Hole is challenging right now,” says Sumner Douglas, the CEO and founder of the Salt Lake City-based, sustainability focused modular home builder Stack Homes. “We like to think we’re the solution for a number of these challenges.” Built in a factory in SLC, Stack Homes modular homes can be installed in all seasons; Stack Homes dwellings are built with high R-values and generate as little waste as possible; and, finally, the price per square foot of a Stack Homes model is less than half of that of a home built on-site. “How homes are built really hasn’t changed since the 1920s,” Douglas says. “And that model is no longer working, neither for homeowners nor for the environment. This is especially true in Jackson Hole, where stick builds can be $800 to $1,000 a square foot, on average 50 percent of materials are wasted, there’s a shortage of workers, and the weather often delays projects.” A Stack Homes project costs about $350 per square foot, generates less than 10 percent waste, and is delivered between 150 and 210 days after permits are finalized. While modular homes have been around since 1908 when a Sears catalog offered 44 models of what were then called “kit homes,” Stack Homes brings modular construction into the 21st century with modern designs that are built to last and to provide high energy efficiency.

Stack Homes offers four base models, which come standard with highquality finishes—sized at 320, 480, 640, and 960 square feet—and these can be stacked and combined to create custom homes with up to several thousand square feet of living space. The creativity of each client especially shines when combining multiple models into the ideal configuration. Because of their versatility, these luxury dwellings serve many purposes for Stack Homes clients including forever homes, guest houses, rental units, pool houses, and most recently, a ski chalet. While Stack Homes clients choose from existing designs, they can also apply certain interior and exterior customizations. Rarely do two Stack Homes projects look the same, but what they do share is a high standard of sustainability and design. “Stack Homes modular dwellings are built for modern living in today’s environment,” Douglas says.

Stack Homes modular dwellings are built for modern living in today’s environment.
— Sumner Douglas, founder

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