A Sun Valley Home Linked to the Land with 360-Degree Views

This familial retreat speaks the local vernacular through regional materials and architectural ingenuity.

1 hour ago

Dana W. Todd,

An artful wall of lighting dances beside the native Oakley stone entrance bridge to introduce visitors to this home tucked into the land’s hilly contours. | Photo: Gabe Border

Nestled into a hillside with 360-degree wraparound views of the Wood River Valley, a family’s sanctuary in the resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho, celebrates and embraces all that the land has to offer, including views, local natural materials and outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing and golfing right outside their door.

Architects Scott Payne and Aaron Belzer of Farmer Payne Architects designed this family home, leveraging its location by respecting the natural contours of the land and using regional materials to create a sense of place. Their design called for an excavation of part of the hill so the lower level of the residence assimilates into the hillside with a walkout basement. Working with Lee Gilman Builders, the architectural team designed a contemporary mountain home with an open concept using local natural resources as requested by the homeowners.

The home integrates indigenous materials, including Idaho stone, Douglas fir, white oak and boulders from an Oregon quarry strategically placed around the home to frame it as a permanent part of the land. | Photo: Gabe Border

“The home is super site-specific and feels born of the hillside,” says Payne. He and Belzer specified indigenous materials such as heavy Douglas fir timber siding and Idaho Oakley stone on the exterior, while steel beams and walls of glass add a contemporary statement.

“This is not typical thin wooden siding, but heavy timbers that tooth together at the corners for a contemporary version of the old-school building style used for log cabins,” he explains. To continue the celebration of natural materials, the team designed a green roof on the garage planted with native grasses, further blending the home into its environment and enhancing sustainability by lowering its carbon footprint.

The homeowners were deeply involved in the design, sourcing artwork and wood locally and collaborating with the designer to create a custom glass dining table poured by a regional craftsman. | Photo: Gabe Border

Walking into the glass entryway over a stone bridge that “floats” over the landscaping, visitors see straight through the residence to Proctor Mountain rising behind the home. They also are greeted by an entry wall of colorful Holly Hunt lights strategically placed as an art installation on the stairwell wall. “It was my first major design decision,” says the homeowner.

“I spent a lot of time choosing lighting because I wanted it to read like artwork. The colors in the Holly Hunt lights set the color palette for the whole home.” Working with interior design firm The Picket Fence, the homeowner sourced vibrant artwork from local gallery Gilman Contemporary and Sun Valley’s annual arts festival, adding bright pops of color to interiors specially designed with calming neutrals as a backdrop.

Farmer Payne Architects oriented the home toward the east and Proctor Mountain while capturing a southeastern panorama of Mindbender Mountain and the north face of Devil’s Bedstead. | Photo: Gabe Border

Exterior timber siding extends into the home, where it meets with board-formed concrete walls, nickel-gap wood paneling, and white oak flooring to add warmth to the modern interiors. The homeowners, who are in the wood products industry, asked the architects to use an atypical product in the residential market called mass plywood panels (MPP).

Constructed of multiple layers of wood veneers glued and pressed together in large sheets, MPP’s inherent strength enables it to be used as a substitute for plywood subflooring, the usual wooden floor joists and as a base for suspending the stairwell, creating a floating stairway effect on the lower level. As Payne reiterates, “With a unified design team partnered with the homeowners’ vision, we ultimately created a space that is both innovative and deeply connected to its environment.”

The oversize living room fireplace replicates exterior materials of Oakley stone and blackened steel. | Photo: Gabe Border

A “floating” stairway to the lower level is suspended from innovative MPP panels, not only aesthetically pleasing but also highlighting the home’s total environmental integration. | Photo: Gabe Border