From Our Editor: Raze or Save?

Portrait: Povy Atchison

This is the tale of two houses: In 1889, a Victorian home stood proudly on Aspen’s Main Street—standing out with its bright red tin shingle roof, leaded glass windows and elaborate detailing. While it began as a family home, through the years, as the times and town changed, the structure’s purpose changed too: from single-family residence to popular B and B, until 1961, when the Pitkin County library purchased the land it sat on, moving the house to a lot across town where it remained, somewhat hidden, for the next 59 years.

Enter David and Judy Steiner, who  discovered the home in its advanced age. In the words of David Steiner, “It was a wreck.”  But the Steiners are a couple with vision, and they hired F&M Architects to suss out what could be done to save the former beauty. Even fully restored, the 2,000-square-foot home wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate the Steiners, their family and friends. So they instructed the architects to save as many original details as possible in the Victorian while adding the necessary square footage.

F&M’s inspired solution featured two structures—the historic Victorian and a new two-story brick contemporary building—connected by a glass bridge containing the kitchen. It was a marriage of old and new, seamlessly united by that culinary heart of the home. The magnificent 8,500-square-foot result is Mountain Living’s 2025 Home of the Year.

The  old Victorian could have been scraped and replaced—something we see across the West that often results in loss of the historical character that shaped mountain towns. We celebrate the Steiners for taking the time and resources to create a masterpiece of architecture and design—a character-rich home that’s, in the most sincere definition of the word, unique.

Another homeowner in this issue also faced the “save or raze” question, this time in Jackson Hole. After moving to the area to work as a writer at the local newspaper, Lisa Flood purchased a home that she calls a “mishmash” of parts: a 1950s summer cabin, a circa 1980s structure and a poorly constructed section that became the bedroom. The old cabin was quirky, and she and her family loved it, becoming used to “living in their old shoe.” But when a bathroom remodel led to the discovery of water damage, Flood thought it might be time to start over.

Fate intervened, however, when the truck with the wrecking ball got pulled over.  The delay gave Flood time to rethink her decision, and she opted to go with her heart, sharing the charmed result with her photos. Saving an older structure can cost more than building new, but  some things are hard to recreate—and worth saving: the patina earned over years, the home’s place in the landscape and, as ML contributor Chase Reynolds Ewald writes, “for lack of a better word, soul.”

Cheers to you and yours this winter season as we welcome snow!

Darla Worden
Mountain Living Editor in Chief

See it all in the November/December 2025 issue of Mountain Living