How The Refresh Of A 1960s Aspen Chalet Honors Its Past

Aspen fiercely protects its small-town feel, even as worldly new neighbors—Hermès, Gucci and Louis Vuitton to name a few—have recently moved in. To that end, the city now has stringent limitations in place when it comes to construction: Only six demolitions are allowed each year. Happily, when architects Sarah Broughton and John Rowland’s clients purchased a classic 1960s trilevel mountain chalet in Aspen’s West End, they were enamored with its quintessential A-frame silhouette. “It has such charm and mountain feel,” says the wife. Broughton and Rowland, as well as project manager and lead architect Will Otte and interior designer Sarah Abd Raddo, shared her sentiment. “All of us love the A-frame’s iconic form and what it evokes in terms of the history of Aspen,” Broughton reflects. Working with and honoring the existing structure became a priority.

That’s not to say that there wasn’t plenty the clients and design team wanted to tweak. “We started considering how we could bring in more natural light,” says Broughton. “By design, the north-south orientation and steep slope over the eaves cuts off a lot of sun.” It also limits eastern and western views, she points out. A solution arrived via another traditional architectural element: the dormer. Cutting into the roofline to add a series on each side made the biggest impact to the original structure, dramatically changing the top level’s ceiling height, brightness and livability: “The dormers not only make the top floor feel much larger, but they also give our house an elevated, modern mountain look,” comments the wife.

These elements proved pivotal to unblocking additional sight lines. “Each dormer is slightly angled to nod toward different, distant peaks,” Broughton shares of the subtle gesture. A bronze metal roof and cedar siding stained a deep black-brown further redresses the triangular shape. “We wanted to highlight the history of this building by giving it a dark form, then treat the dormers—which transform the interior space in a really positive way—as playful elements thanks to a contrasting champagne hue that disappears a bit more into the natural landscape,” explains Otte.

Another vital change came courtesy of a completely reconfigured interior stair. Aligned with a dormer that allows a vertical shaft of light to shine down, the residence’s formerly dark center is now bathed in sun. And the staircase itself is spotlight-worthy: Crafted from oak flooring steam-bent to create softly curved edges, wood seems to waterfall down from each step. Helmed by general contractors Hugh Marsh and David Dorr, it’s a singular sculptural statement. “This is by far the most complicated staircase we’ve done, and it took the work of top Valley artisans to get this result,” notes Marsh. “It’s our biggest source of pride on this project.”

The showstopping staircase, combined with the removal of select walls, helped create more spacious and airy public spaces. Both were necessary interventions, the clients felt, as the existing ceiling on the main level tops out at just 8 feet. This time, the design team’s solution was to simply make it beautiful. “We took a lot of care to treat the ceiling like a fifth wall and to create something special,” Broughton observes, indicating the placement of oak battens to create a grid pattern that extends across the ground floor’s living, dining and kitchen area. (The treatment repeats on a lower-level living area’s ceiling as well.) A striking use of color, from bold black to blues and teals, establishes moments of cheer and drama between the wood-lined framework of the flooring and ceiling. See the geometric-patterned, blue-green chenille of the dining banquette and the nearby bar’s cerulean cabinetry; or look to the living area fireplace wall sheathed in a slab of black granite, as well as the kitchen’s black-stained cabinetry crowned by a gold hood.

But it’s the homeowners’ private quarters, expanding across the entire third-floor apex of the structure’s “A,” that became the exclamation mark of this house—a quiet one, that is. A sleek, custom black steel fireplace provides warmth to the neutral-toned bedroom’s seating and sleeping areas, which are tucked under opposite dormers. “We softened the angular architecture with subtly curved furnishings,” says Broughton of the space’s retreat-like ambience. The primary bathroom continues the away-from-it-all aesthetic with a freestanding tub poised to contemplate the northern landscape. “Our job is to delight our clients and give them things they didn’t even know they needed,” Broughton concludes. And here, the result definitely encourages lingering.