A ski-in, ski-out family lodge in Big Sky, Montana is pushing the boundaries of modern mountain living. The Vista residence, designed by CLB Architects, is a finalist in the 8th annual GRAY Awards in the On the Boards breakout category.
Embedded in the powdery slopes of Big Sky, Vista is a 11,000-square-foot home that channels the owner’s childhood memories of mountain adventures. The design distills the colors and textures of the home’s alpine ecosystem, using authentic materials and a high degree of craft.
A harmonious blend of design and nature
The home’s aesthetic restraint draws from Japanese and Scandinavian contemporary design, creating a quiet, slower, and more centered pace of life. Achieving its perch on a rocky scree field required complex geoengineering, including a series of micro-piles to anchor the structure.
From this high-altitude vantage point, Vista has access to expansive vistas over the surrounding environment. Geothermal wells and an integrated rainwater catchment system reflect the home’s sustainable ethos.
The design optimizes the family‘s privacy and natural light through its orientation around a central, subtracted courtyard. The east wing appears buried on the slopeside elevation, with the Hermosa Limestone base extruding the site’s geology.
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The upper level is clad in Japanese shou sugi ban cedar, sheltered by a monumental, folded mass timber roof. The roof’s slope creates a dynamic array of spatial qualities within the interior, from intimate 10-foot ceiling heights to 18-foot ceilings in the great room.
A processional unearthing
The entry sequence is arranged as a processional unearthing, as visitors ascend through the limestone-ensconced courtyard into the primary living space. The lower level houses a family room, bunk room, wine cellar, and specialized ski room with an attached spa.
The upper level features a great room, deck, and primary bedroom suite oriented toward views of Lone Peak. The home’s neutral palette of tonal woods, blackened steel, and linear stone cultivates a sense of comfort and serenity.
The interior design is a series of cohesive, connective moments, from custom millwork to a kitchen table with inset bench referencing Japanese joinery. A Pierre Yovanovitch sofa allows conversation to flow between the kitchen and living space.
In the great room, a monolithic hearth composed of Hermosa limestone grounds the structure. The formal dining room, or “zen den”, provides a contrasting character with its dark wood, illuminated by a fragmented Studio Drift-designed sculptural pendant, and centered on a Pierre Yovanovitch dining table, the den curates an invitational atmosphere of hospitality.
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Inspired by place
CLB is a cross-disciplinary design firm that pushes the growing edge of contemporary practice. Since its founding in Jackson, Wyoming in 1992, CLB has taken its frontier origins as a guiding ethos, mobilizing a uniquely holistic and place-inspired approach to projects spanning North America. Driven by an innate responsibility to people and place, and a desire to respond authentically to the conditions in which they practice their craft, CLB’s adept team of architecture and interior design professionals work to create environments that raise, enrich, and inspire.
Filtering environments through poetic built forms, CLB brings the occupant into an intimate, reciprocal relationship with their natural surroundings. Each project — from luxury mountainside residences and urban lofts to evocative public spaces and immersive public installations — is conceived holistically, weaving through-lines of inspiration from the smallest furnishings to the largest formal gestures. Through three decades of practice, CLB has honed its own, distinct architectural language, exploring innovative construction methods and materials while maintaining respect for time-honored traditions. In drawing the specificities of the environment into each detail, “Inspired by Place” becomes more than a design philosophy, it frames a way of life.
With each new project, CLB reaffirms its commitment to social sustainability, collaborating with and learning from trusted local craftspeople. In strengthening connections with the community and taking advantage of specialized local knowledge, each project arises as a natural extension of the existing social and environmental connections that span far beyond the site.
CLB’s close-knit, highly collaborative team includes 60 architecture and interior design professionals working between studios in Bozeman, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Led by partners Eric Logan, Kevin Burke, and Sam Ankeny, the firm continues to expand its influence, shaping the built environment with a deep respect for place and a forward-thinking vision.
