The Art Of Restraint
IN AN EAST FORK OASIS, ARCHITECT JOEY STEVENSON FINDS FREEDOM WITHIN LIMITATION
by Lori Currie
In architecture as in life, there’s never just one way to do something. “There is always adversity and risk in design,” says Joey Stevenson, who founded his firm, Stevenson Architecture, on the tenets of nuance and knowingness. “Establishing those parameters in a project gives me creative input. The more constraints on something, the more creative I can be.”
A background in the design build process, along with experience grounded in roles as a site superintendent, fabricator, draftsman, designer to architect, taught Stevenson the necessity of getting your hands dirty, an adage that served him well when working with a client on her East Fork refuge, located 10 miles southeast of Sun Valley. During the nine month design process, the Covid 19 pandemic hit, and Stevenson quickly tapped into his experience, collaborating with the client and team to deliver the project amidst newfound supply chain constraints, labor shortages, and drastic pricing escalations.
“We saw a 23 percent price increase, coupled with material shortages, with in a few short months,” says Stevenson. The siding alone jumped 300 percent from March to August. “Collaboration and goal alignment that is how we addressed the adversity of the pandemic,” says Stevenson, referring to how the team worked hand in hand with the builder, KMV (now SV Custom Builders), and the client to keep the project on track.
“We took a ton of care to orientate the house on two axes: one toward the creek and the other toward the Pioneers.”
–Joey Stevenson, Architect , AIA
Founder, Principal, Stevenson Architecture
As part of his process, Stevenson and the client worked through multiple design iterations early to vet all possible scenarios, options, and ideas. This allowed the team to get a very thorough understanding of the desired spaces, how they relate to each other, and how they relate to the site. But most importantly, how the client will prioritize and use those spaces.
The final design spanned 5,900 square feet with five bedrooms, an office, a small gym, a game room, two lower level patios and an upper roof deck with hot tub. But the pièce de resistance? The views of the jagged Pioneer Mountains to the east, the East Fork Creek with a lush aspen grove to the north and Mindbender Ridge to the south. “We took a ton of care to orientate the house on two axes: one toward the creek and the other toward the Pioneers,” says Stevenson. Landscape architecture was done by Eggers Associates and consisted of native trees, shrubs, and flowers that mimicked the natural environment.
“We try to limit the palette and use the same material multiple different ways to create different effects. For example, can you use the same material in different orientations or widths to create a hierarchy?”
–Joey Stevenson, Stevenson Architecture
With finish availability severely impacted due to Covid, Stevenson spent countless hours trying to procure alternates that still met the client’s expectations. “It was crazy; usually the manufactured product would be drastically cheaper than the same item from a local artisan craftsman, but we quickly found that we could source the raw material and match the finish for far cheaper and more efficiently than we could through national suppliers and manufacturers,” he says. This is where Stevenson’s design build background kicked in, collaborating with artisans to find the best options for the project. He worked with SVCB and their mason to source stone from Montana instead of Canada. He spent hours with the crew from Hedrick Marquez painting to hone stain and patina colors.
Similarly, the exterior also had originally called for a steel panel with a patina. Cost wise, this came in double what they were originally quoted, so Stevenson looked at dozens of alternative products to understand how they perform and got samples to view them with the client at the site. “Because color is so subjective and relative, one thing may look blue in a certain light, or it may look green adjacent to a different color, so you’ve got to get everything together in the right light, context, and orientation to see how it looks,” says Stevenson. They were able to find significant cost savings by going with another panel; the Swiss Pearl’s Carat panel had microscopic glass beads baked into it, providing a shimmer with a bit of the metallic quality of the original panel.
For Stevenson, material selection is highly intentional. “I always try to be selective with the materials we use,” says Stevenson. “We try to limit the palette and use the same material multiple different ways to create different effects. For example, can you use the same material in different orientations or widths to create a hierarchy? Or does a certain material have different textural qualities depending on how you process it, and can you use these qualities to create different feelings in different spaces? In the case of rough cut versus smooth cut stone, one may lend itself better to a tranquil primary bathroom and the other better suited for a game room. It’s not hard and fast; it’s just something I try to do,” says Stevenson. They used western red cedar for the exterior cladding and soffits and interior ceilings. By changing the board width and orientation, they created a hierarchy between the primary suite and guest wing. By softening the stain for the overhead conditions, they created contrast and lightness in the vaulted spaces.
The awnings of the home are functional but also simply architectural. They provide screening for direct light, and they’ve been orientated in certain areas with high window exposure, but they also create an ephemeral quality on the interior that’s dynamic: as the sun moves throughout the day, the light quality changes. Wherever that horizontal awning appears, the team added a hidden LED light strip underneath, so at night, it creates shadows through the slats.
“There were a lot of players involved in crafting the stair. We always start with a concept and then it gets pushed through all the people who are going to touch it, and you want that input and collaboration. We had structural steel, custom oak treads, architectural metals, and siding that all had to work in conjunction with each other. It was a lot of work, but the end result paid off.”
–Joey Stevenson, Stevenson Architecture
The slanted appearance of the awnings is replicated indoors, in the form of screens to provide minimal separation between spaces in the open concept floorplan. Another key organizer of the interior was the three sided fireplace. “The client wanted an open concept floor plan but also sought some level of separation between the spaces,” says Stevenson. “The fireplace provides orientation, screening, and simultaneously transparency.”
The interior of the home is awash in natural light thanks to windows that span the 16 foot ceilings. Window placement capitalizes on views from every vantage point. As you enter the main living space, your eye is immediately drawn to the end of the room where they placed a window at the bar facing the creek. Then as you circulate through the spaces, you are presented with massive views of the Pioneers each time you pass a separating element. Last, as you come back out of the space, you get a view back up to Mindbender. Window placement harkens back to the two axes of the house that orientated the massing. “It’s not necessarily something you would pick up on, but I do think it creates beauty,” says Steven-son. “We’re always trying to peel back these layers on this house.”
A focal point of the home is the cantilevered staircase, hugging a Shou Sugi Ban wood clad wall, which the team viewed as a vertical datum for the space. “There were a lot of players involved in crafting the stair,” says Stevenson. “We always start with a concept and then it gets pushed through all the people who are going to touch it, and you want that input and collaboration. We had structural steel, custom oak treads, architectural metals, and siding that all had to work in conjunction with each other. It was a lot of work, but the end result paid off.”
One of the client’s motifs was that she loves contemporary design but still sought something cozy and rustic. “We were really looking for these forms, shapes, and feelings that are more contemporary but bringing in really rustic finishes and doing them in a clean, contemporary way,” says Stevenson. For example, the kitchen cabinets are black, flat panel alder with a two part stain to give them a bit of “rustification” with some graining and patina but with a lack of hardware that is very contemporary. Similarly, the minimal patinaed stainless steel bar countertop is juxtaposed with a reclaimed timber. The main fireplace as well as a fireplace in the primary bedroom and the kitchen hood are all patinaed metal, tying into Stevenson’s material restraint. The front door is a custom pivot door by fabricator Raw Creative in Denver. Rustic beams found during the remodel of the old Towne Square Tavern in Ketchum were used in the bar and in the bunkroom, playing off the client’s beloved wool clad entry bench and coffee table by Andre Joyau. The level of craftsmanship throughout is evident in things like the milkcrate joint floating cabinets in the primary bathroom. “These elements all come together in the conversation,” says Stevenson.
From conception through completion, this home was a labor of love, brought to life through a process of discovery, analysis, and synthesis. It has taken Stevenson years to hone and refine this approach. “I had dinner with the client a few months after completion, and it brought me incredible joy for her to say how grateful she was for the project and our ability to deliver on her expectations, despite all the adversity we faced. It was difficult, there were trying times, but it brings me such great pride to know that as a team (client, contractors, and artisans), we got there and delivered both a stunning project and one that met the client’s goals.”
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