Square Footage
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Lodge House: 53,000 SF
Outbuildings 15,000 SF
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Program/Scope
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This project started as a renovation of a 3,000 SF steel Butler building into a house for entertaining our client’s Japanese business partners. We convinced the client to design a great lodge from the turn of the century, instead. The project ended up being over 68,000 SF and consists of a main lodge house, motor court, and multiple outbuildings including the maid’s and manager’s quarters, caretaker’s residence, aviation shop, hobby room, a fully functioning observatory, garages, storage and an air strip.
We designed the master plan, the lodge house, outbuildings, and every inch of the interior including the door hardware, ironwork, lighting, custom cabinetry and casework. We also designed the landscaping. We provided full construction management with weekly 3-day trips for the four years and two months of construction. We now know as much about logs as anyone.
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Budget / Construction Cost
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There was no budget.
Construction reached over $61,000,000.
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Unusual Characteristics
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Located on a high mountain meadow at 7,200 ft, the site is home to a resident elk herd of 900 and is on a 15,000-acre ranch in Colorado. The lodge is designed for summer and winter activities and has an owner’s suite. |
Special Challenges
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This was our first log structure. We wanted to build it in the tradition of the great lodges found in our early national parks, using real log construction with no hidden structural systems. Finding and procuring natural, straight, unmarred, "dead" logs was a tremendous job. Teaching skilled loggers the techniques required in our detaining was also a challenge. A post and beam log structure of this size has not been built for over 75 years. |
Solution
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We designed a true post and beam log structure of over 60,000 Sq.Ft. It is one of the largest log structures ever built. The north side is buttressed with tall splayed stone walls and small openings to resist snow. The south side is all post and beam logs with glass walls to accept the sun and the views. The great lounge is post and beam logs with all glazed walls and double columns and a second level cat walk to create shear. We used fire-killed, dry logs of up to 43" in diameter in the structure.
The main floor consists of a great lounge, bar, dining room, chef’s kitchen, a family kitchen, owner’s suite, library, offices and receiving area. The second floor houses the guest suites, art walks, several lounges and a bar. The 10,000 SF basement houses a pistol range, a 30,000-bottle wine cellar and complete exercise facilities. The outdoor areas consist of an entertainment patio, barbecue, main fire pit, elk walk, sporting clays field, observatory and grass landing field, all of which were designed by this office.
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