Tucker Ranch Retreat

From Homestead Magazine, 2011
+ Story by Tammy Christel
+ Photography by David Swift

Architect Larry Berlin’s design masterfully realizes the client’s vision of an “updated” traditional home suitable to Jackson Hole’s lifestyle. Outside, expansive frontier-stone terraces surround wire-brushed cedar exteriors.

How do you make a dream come true? Berlin Architects, Brian Goff Interior Designs and Bontecou Construction bring a 20-year vision to life.

Home. Permanence. Family retreat. Traditional Western aesthetics updated for today’s Jackson Hole lifestyle. Make it spacious, but intimate. Think historic, but integrate contemporary design and amenities.

For many architects, designers and builders, constructing a home to suit that vision might pose difficulty. But Larry Berlin, Brian Goff and Steve Bontecou leapt at the opportunity. Such a home would bring their client’s dream to life; he’d chosen the perfect lot 20 years ago and was ready to build.

“The owner looked around a great deal and really knew Jackson, which is unusual for many clients,” says architect Larry Berlin. “He’d found the perfect property early on and kept a strong dream going of having a house there, of being in it with his family … that was the dream. Within ten minutes of our first meeting, he told me that story.”

Berlin, Goff and Bontecou worked closely with their client. “He made great decisions. He wanted a true family dwelling, an enduring home. A very special and meaningful assignment,” says Berlin.

The three had worked together before and were all “in the same space about the project.” Bontecou and Berlin’s offices are next door to one another.

“That proximity made the whole collaboration very efficient,” notes Bontecou. “It was easy to brainstorm. We focused on craftsmanship, on building a classic home. We wanted to put it together perfectly.”

Evolved planning, construction and design are hallmarks. An open family room, kitchen and dining area form a central gathering space—the true heart of the home. Welcoming and comfortable, its success is due in no small part to Berlin’s use of varying ceiling heights.

Exterior Landscape/span>

The house looks out over indigenous grasses, aspen trees, a pond and open space. The owners held the specially chosen property for twenty years, designing and scaling a house befitting its surrounding natural beauty.

“The scale of the family room is a great element—the high, flat ceiling; it’s not vaulted but it’s 14 feet high. The scale of the living room’s footprint to its height is very pleasant and opens up great views. It’s a little different from what we’re used to seeing. I love that space.”

Appropriately, the home’s bedrooms are comfortably proportioned. Two master suites, as well as other bedrooms, are intimate and cozy, and although the home’s open floor plan is key, private spaces are plentiful. To create a sense of retreat and keep family and friends close by, the owners integrated a compact spa with amenities in step with the finest resorts.

Original designs called for separate guest quarters. In the final floor plan a recreational billiard room links the central living space to the guest bedroom wing. “We were able to keep visitors in the same dwelling and save them from braving the winter elements,” explains Berlin. “At the same time, the billiard room provides a bit of a privacy buffer for guests.”

To fulfill the client’s wish for interiors that reflected the architecture, Goff custom designed many furnishings: His fresh, bold interpretations of traditional Navajo rugs complete several rooms.

“Everything needed to be correct in terms of size and color, to be appropriate for the rooms they’d inhabit,” says the designer. “We chose calming hues—warm yellows, greens, browns and reds, flowing from room to room.”

Clean, crisp design is integral and evident in Bontecou’s framing of the house and in many of its interior details. A suspended floating staircase adds a touch of contemporary magic. Designing it was, says Bontecou, an “engineering feat.” Near the foot of the staircase, a sliding barn door’s operative steel cables provide subtle updating. The living room’s great stone fireplace, cabled wood mantel and soaring beamed ceilings were inspired by Yellowstone’s famed Old Faithful Inn. Carefully chosen paintings from Altamira Fine Art offer fresh interpretations of historic Western themes.

Berlin’s creative philosophy is that design is a process. “It’s not about ‘a product.’ It’s about giving our client—in this case a wonderfully engaging family—what they want. Everything evolved the way it should. We came up with a home that’s understated but refined; a permanent home that manifests a family’s love of Jackson Hole.”

Dream fulfilled.

“Everything needed to be correct in terms of size and color, to be appropriate for the rooms they’d inhabit.” —Brian Goff, Brian Goff Interior Design

“We came up with a home that’s understated but refined; a permanent home that manifests a family’s love of Jackson Hole.” —Larry Berlin, Berlin Architects

“We focused on craftsmanship, on building a classic home. We wanted to put it together perfectly.” —Steve Bontecou, Bontecou Construction