When our client, from Toronto-based Globizen, reached out to find a lot in the greater Park City area to build a “creative retreat” in the mountains, we leaped at the opportunity to assist. Globizen is an international city building company & community focused on creating better places. They build and operate creative retreats in the world’s most desirable travel destinations. Their mission is to build better, more beautiful cities, and create long-term value through design innovation and disciplined execution. We were excited to play a small part in finding the piece of land in Summit Park that would become their next creation.

You're from Toronto. Why choose Park City, UT of all the resort towns? It was really for three main reasons. One, when it comes to big mountain skiing, Utah is simply one of the best in North America. It’s consistently snowy and there’s a low risk of climate change impacting that in the near future. Two, it’s the most accessible resort location. Nowhere else can you fly into a major international airport and be in the mountains within 30 minutes. That’s how long the drive is from SLC to PMH. And finally, three, we saw and continue to see a lot of positive momentum around both Park City and SLC – new people moving to the state, new investment, and a really great emerging design scene. 

Who were the architects and builders, and why did you decide to use them? The builder was ACI – they are of course local -- and the architect was New York-based Mattaforma. ACI was recommended to us while we were doing due diligence on the site and researching the local market. They were also working on another site in the Summit Park area at the time and so it made a lot of sense to work with them. It was also clear that they understood our design objectives for the project. 

The story behind Mattaforma is a fun one. We are involved in a high-rise project in Toronto called One Delisle (currently under construction). The design architect for this project is Chicago-based Studio Gang. And about 4 years into the project, two of the architects on the project decided to leave and start their own practice. We basically followed them and asked if they wanted to work on a project in Park City.

What were the main design inspirations for the home? From the outset, we knew that we wanted a clean and modern take on a mountain house. Utah has a great legacy of modernist buildings. You have architect John Sugden who worked under Mies van der Rohe and today you have architects like Chris Price (Klima Architecture) who have designed and built some truly beautiful homes in the Summit Park area, and elsewhere. Despite this, we felt like there weren’t enough of these kinds of homes for people to rent when they come and visit Park City. We made it our goal to create one – something simple, functional, and beautiful.

It's built on a pretty steep slope, how did that influence the design concept? It influenced practically everything. We actually started with a different design. It was a lot more complicated and it kind of terraced back into the mountain. It was a play on what Chris Price had done with his design two lots over. But as soon as we started looking at and engineering the retaining walls that we would need, we quickly realized that it was going to be cost prohibitive. So we went back and rationalized the design, basically minimizing the amount of excavation we would need to an absolute minimum while maintaining our required program.

What do you want guests to experience that is special about this place? The other driving force behind the design was to create something that we are calling a “creative retreat.” Let me explain. Every year I go on a ski and snowboard trip with some of my closest friends from grad school (in the US) and with some of my friends from Toronto. We spend at least a week in the mountains unplugging and riding, but also creating things, whether that be GoPro videos from the mountain or simple photography. It always feels like an intensely creative time, and that’s maybe because we’re all disconnected from the demands of our daily lives. There’s space for it. And so, one of the overarching things that we wanted to do was create a space that would both share our love of the mountains with others and hopefully inspire a little creativity. This is the reason why we designed two large bay windows on the top floor of the house. (One is a window seat and the other is a large two-person workspace.) They’re both oriented away from the street so that you feel like you’re in the mountain. Hopefully these will serve as a great place to read, write, create, or, if you really have to, take a work call.

What is your favorite part of the home and why? The house is 3 floors. As you reach the stair landing before the top floor, there is a large double height space and a similarly tall window that frames the surrounding mountain and trees. This was a moment that Mattaforma carefully considered and designed. It was meant to signal that you had reached the top of the house and were now firmly in the mountains. I love this moment. Every window in the house was carefully positioned. From the outside it may seem a little random, but it all makes sense once you’re inside.

This beautiful and unique space is officially taking bookings.