Rocky Mountain Modern

Book excerpt: Rocky Mountain Modern is a collection of the most inspiring modern residences in the Rockies, a region with a surprising but deep history of modernist design Rocky Mountain Modern presents the most inspiring modern residences set within the stunning landscapes of the Rockies. Perched on cliffsides or nestled into verdant valleys, with expansive picture windows framing breathtaking vistas and natural materials such as wood and stone interpreted in new ways, these striking homes reveal modern living at its best in the mountains. Indeed, modern design has a deep connection to the region: in the 1940s, Aspen, a former mining town in the Colorado Rockies, became an unlikely bastion of modernism, hosting some of the world’s leading designers, including Herbert Bayer, Eero Saarinen, Buckminster Fuller, and Victor Lundy. Over the ensuing decades, a regional modernism developed that blended clean lines, open volumes, and glass walls with the natural features of the rocky landscape and a vernacular that had adapted to the extreme environmental conditions. Rocky Mountain Modern celebrates this enduring tradition of modernism through the most remarkable residences in the region, designed by such architecture studios as Selldorf Architects, Olson Kundig, and Allied Works in Aspen, Telluride, Vail, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole, and other picturesque locales across the Rocky Mountains, from New Mexico to British Columbia.