Architecture Wednesday: Riverbend

After last week’s more rustic, pieced together over time, home in a Brazilian paradise, perhaps we need a more modern, more urban, more purposefully constructed home in a more snowy park of the world.

Riverbend, a 6,250 square foot dwelling nestled on 20-acres on the banks of the Snake River in Jackson, Wyoming, looks like a home in any city setting; loft-like and modern, and gorgeous, inside and out.

But the property had its issues; a berm, created by the Army Corps of Engineers-built blocked views of the river, while a cottonwood grove obscured the vistas of the Grand Teton mountain range. To resolve these issues, the architects ultimately elevated the home five feet above the ground to take in the surroundings.

The house and guest house were set perpendicular to each other, the house running east/west, the guesthouse running north/south, connected by wood decking, which creates a shared outdoor space that capitalizes on warm southern light. From that outdoor living space, one looks through the living room of the main house toward the Tetons beyond. This transparency renders the structure less imposing and further connects the home to its site.

On both sides of the home ten-foot overhangs run the length of the building, carving out outdoor living spaces lined with cedar which contrasts against the metal skin of the building; the steel exterior is designed to weather, slowly rusting to a patina as the home further integrates with its site.

Inside are clean plaster walls and cedar ceilings, floors of concrete that contain bits of green glass for added texture. The double height kitchen—dining-living area has floor-to-ceiling windows, while the fireplace stack grounds the room.

It gives me urban living with gorgeous wild views of river and mountain; it gives me winter and spring, where I can live inside or out. It gives me nearly everything I love about a home; beauty inside and outside, man-made and natural.

Even that wacky mirrored powder room I love ... though maybe not on Margarita Tuesday.

One Kind Design