A West End Aspen Home Made With Music

Inspired by a musical composition, the modern dwelling’s perforated metal siding creates privacy from the alley while allowing natural daylight to filter into the interior. | Photography by Draper White

Home to more than 400 summer events, Aspen’s Music Festival cast a spell on a cosmopolitan Dallas couple with a longtime appreciation for the arts. Captivated, they soon acquired an 1888 Victorian across from Triangle Park in the city’s historic West End neighborhood. “The culture here is so rich,” the wife says. “There’s a quietness about it, and time moves a little slower.”

Having overseen several extensive home renovations, the couple knew the property had potential and soon commissioned Basalt, Colorado-based CCY Architects to both renovate the main house and design a new guesthouse that would also serve as a performing arts space. “We are experienced in design-build and have a very clear aesthetic of our own, but they took our dreams to a whole new level,” the wife says.

A pair of streamlined modern sofas by Vladimir Kagan from Holly Hunt create a convivial spot for conversation in the newly built guest home. The coffee table is by Gary Hutton Design from Hewn in San Francisco.

While the architects were not able to modify the historic home’s front facade, firm principal John Cottle and project architect Evan Barrett eliminated an awkward 1970s addition and redesigned the interior layout with strong X and Y axes that enhance the flow. On the other side of a newly created courtyard, they designed a seemingly stand-alone guesthouse that’s connected by a below-grade wing that contains the guest bedrooms.

A warm visual complement to the white walls and sleek porcelain tile flooring in this guesthouse by CCY Architects, the fluted wood wall paneling also absorbs sound, contributing to the occasional performance space’s excellent acoustics.

While decidedly more modern in attitude, the new addition likewise has a pitched roof, and its exterior is clad with vertical aluminum siding in the same dimension as the horizontal wooden siding on the main house. Adding an artistic touch, the metal siding facing the neighboring alley sports a perforated pattern inspired by the wife’s favorite piece of music, creating a sense of privacy while allowing natural daylight to flood the interior. “The light moving through the building is magical,” Cottle remarks.

A pair of tall glass pivot doors create a seamless connection between the guest home and a courtyard furnished with contemporary pieces around a modern fire table.

The motif connects the dwelling to Aspen’s vibrant culture in the same way that the slanted roofline and modest nature resonate with the surrounding structures.

Indeed, while the newly renovated home offers 6,000 square feet of living space, “it presents as compact and humble, and we relish that,” the wife says. As does the home’s natural interior palette, which includes porcelain, metal and slotted natural oak wall paneling with acoustical properties.

Although sympathetic to the property’s existing late-nineteenth-century Victorian home in form and scale, the new guesthouse’s custom-perforated vertical siding, boxy second-floor dormer and large windows embody the sort of modernist character the new owners told CCY Architects they envisioned.

Now working to make Colorado their legal residence, the couple is overjoyed with their new abode—a spot to entertain friends and family and to support the arts. Intimately involved in a nonprofit that supports young musicians, for example, the wife hosts an annual luncheon for the young composers who attend the music festival. “I’m overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude for all that’s possible at this intersection of inspired architecture and the intent to serve,” she says. “Every day is like a celebration.”

DESIGN DETAILS

INTERIOR DESIGNER Nablo Troxel Design LLC ARCHITECT CCY Architects CONTRACTOR Koru Construction Limited LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Bluegreen

RESOURCES

ART NUNG NUNG NUNG SOUN by Jean-Marc Louis at McHugh Gallery JAPAN KISS by Jean-Marc Louis at McHugh Gallery GUEST HOME SOFA Vladimir Kagan Omnibus at Holly Hunt COFFEE TABLE by Gary Hutton Design at Hewn DINING TABLE at Holly Hunt DINING CHAIRS at Holly Hunt HANGING LIGHT by Davide Groppi Lighting at Dom Interiors STAIRWELL HANGING LIGHT by Davide Groppi Lighting at Dom Interiors PHOTO by David Burdeny at Iris Gallery KITCHEN ART by Brenda Holzke at Costello Gallery PATIO OUTDOOR FURNITURE by Janus et Cie