CLB Architects Create Modern Mountain House in Jackson Hole

The team, led by principals Matt Thackray and John Carney, as well as interior designer Jenn Mei, created a modern mountain home that fits perfectly with the setting—and the family’s active lifestyle. “The house is part of a five-acre compound that also includes a guest house and a gear barn for sports equipment,” says Thackray. “The owners, a couple with three children, have a minimalist aesthetic and wanted a house that’s informal, connects with the outdoors and is in tune with the surrounding landscape.”

The flat site, which Thackeray explains is riparian bottomland, is dotted with native conifers and aspens and has views of the mountains–anyone looking to live the modern mountain life’s oasis. The 6,300-square-foot main house was sited to make the most of these vistas, as well as to provide privacy from a nearby road. In response to the clients’ request for an informal great room concept, CLB architects designed an L-shaped plan, with an open kitchen, dining area and living room—which make up the core of the main floor—and access a generously sized, covered terrace. Offices for the husband and wife, a game room and a media room are also on the first level. Upstairs, a reading nook and the master suite are connected by a bridge over the entry to the three children’s rooms.

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In elevation, the modern mountain house’s architecture includes a flat metal roof—angled to take in mountain views and extended over the terrace—and a series of crisp volumes, clad in zinc panels, cedar planking and pale sandstone, which blends the home into its wooded site. An expanse of floor-to-ceiling windows connect the great room to the outdoors.

The modern mountain home’s interior walnut flooring sets the stage for the simple furnishings chosen to withstand the rigors of family life, while hemlock cladding adds dramatic interest to the vast ceiling planes. Glass railings on the bridge above the entry reiterate the home’s modernist roots. Custom cabinetry, crafted of anigre, imbues a natural look in the kitchen, where a large island offers informal seating. The exterior’s sandstone cladding was repeated indoors on the living room fireplace, which is understored by a massive sandstone slab hearth and detailed with built-in, blackened steel shelves and wood storage.

When it came to furnishings for the modern mountain home, less is more was the operative approach. Interior designer Mei collaborated with the homeowners—as well as with the wife’s mother, a retired interior designer—to choose furnishings in a neutral palette, simple lines and natural materials that tied into the home’s modern architecture. With numerous built-ins, including a banquette in the kitchen, the reading nook’s daybed and slab desks in the offices, the home requires few other pieces of furniture. Family heirlooms, contemporary art and dramatic glass light pendants in the entry and dining area add finishing polish to the classic mountain design.

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Outdoors, the landscape, created by Hershberger Design, was largely kept in its natural state, except for an expanse of mowed grass in the backyard that’s perfect for lawn games. The pond—a larger upper basin and a smaller lower basin connected by a boulder-lined spillway—invites watery adventures and serves as a reflecting pool for the outlines of the home’s modern architecture. During Jackson Hole’s milder season from late spring to early fall, the family lives on the terrace, nurtured by a built-in pizza oven and warmed by an outdoor fireplace. With views of the Tetons and visits from elk or moose, the setting is bucolic and at one with nature. “Who wouldn’t want to live here?” asks Thackeray. “This house has the quintessential Jackson vibe.”