MOUNTAIN LIVING - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Principal and Managing Director of JLF Architects and Partner of JLF Design Build
Multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet finds inspiration for her work from her indigenous heritage.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founding Principal of Walton Architecture
Clare Walton, co-founding principal of Walton Architecture + Engineering, clearly remembers her first architecture project. "It was a model of a house, made from foam core with a pressed-paper terra cotta roof," she says. From there she set up a little studio where she would draw elevations using tracing paper, crayons, a triangle and a T-square.
Walton was passionate about residential architecture and equally passionate about living in the mountains. As soon after architecture school (Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, and Washington University in St. Louis) as financially possible, she moved to the Lake Tahoe area. To start out, the firm did a variety of small projects, which it treated like "little jewels." Because she worked hard on developing solid relationships, larger projects followed-often from second homeowners with a strong interest in architecture.
"Everyone is looking for something different-and we have a broad range of styles in our portfolio-but, basically, everyone wants one thing: a sheltering home for their family," Walton says. Every new-client meeting starts with long conversations about programs and aesthetic goals. "I ask my clients to share about how their family life flows and what inspires them," Walton says. Next come visits to the building site to learn the views, trees, the trajectory of the sun and other important features.
Walton's goal is to build energy efficiency into each of her projects. "It is where we need to go based on the world today," she says. -Irene Rawlings
Job Titles:
- Senior Project Manager at Charles Cunniffe Architects
Lori Ryker is principal and founder of studioryker in Livingston, Montana. Raised in a woodsy community north of Houston, Ryker fell in love with the idea of houses nestled into the forest at a young age. After earning a Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a doctorate from Texas A&M University, she headed to Montana, where she began creating her own modern interpretation of houses surrounded by nature.
"I was really excited to begin to think about how I could design homes that fit within the place but had a very forward-thinking disposition on the land," Ryker says. "I wasn't repeating old motifs or staying really close to the vernacular that came about in the 1800s, but taking the spirit of that idea and then moving it forward into the present time."
Ryker is sensitive to the art and poetry of the built form, and sustainability is one of the cornerstones of her design philosophy. "I get to live every day in this place that is unbelievably beautiful, majestic and fragile," she says. "I like the combination of working with somebody specifically on what their vision is for how they want to live, and then thinking about how to match that well to the land or landscape." -Laura Beausire
Job Titles:
- Principal Architect, Vice President and Co - Founder
Sally Brainerd is principal architect, vice president and co-founder (in 1990, with her partner, Jack Snow) of RKD Architects, based in Edwards, Colorado.
Brainerd grew up in Denver, surrounded by a family of artists, and assumed she'd follow in their footsteps. "But then, when I got into high school, I learned I was also really good at math," she says with a laugh. "From that point on, everybody said, ‘Clearly you're going to be an architect!' So, it was planted in my brain, I guess."
Brainerd ultimately combined all of her strengths to forge her career, earning a B.A. in mathematics and philosophy at Wellesley before training to become an architect at the University of Colorado.
In the early years, she dreamed of a city life designing skyscrapers. "But as I got into it, and got a little more experience, I realized that residential is where it's at," she says. Brainerd and Snow moved to Edwards in the late 1980s and never looked back, gaining a reputation for innovative, mountain-contemporary homes that harmonize with the landscape. "If you look at our work, there are no common threads," Brainerd notes. "You can either do what's expected of you, or you can push the boundaries and present something that's new and different; I'm good at knowing where that tension can come from." -Laura Beausire
Job Titles:
- Founder and Principal of Aspen 's Rowland
Sarah Broughton, founder and principal of Aspen's Rowland+Broughton, seems to have been destined for architecture. She remembers drawing plans and having a sense of spatial awareness even as a child in Portland, Oregon, and a talent for math made her a natural fit for the architecture program when she attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. After working for a time in both Australia and New York, Broughton and her husband, John Rowland, moved back to Colorado and founded Rowland+Broughton in 2003.
"What I love about architecture the most is that it's all-encompassing," Broughton reflects. "Architecture touches everything-it's sociology, anthropology, technology, art, beauty-it's the ultimate problem solving." Today, the firm maintains studios in Aspen and Denver, and R+B provides services in architecture, urban design and interior design for a wide range of residential and commercial clients. Always eager to learn, Broughton says, "We want clients that mentor us as much as we mentor them."
Broughton brings her trademark passion and energy to every project, from homes to hotels, office buildings to restaurants. "Architecture is a fusion of art and everyday life," she says. "I just love that there's an ability to change people's lives, and there's an ability to change the environment, the way we interact with nature and the way we interact with our built environment." -Laura Beausire
Job Titles:
- Partner and Owner of Vertical Arts Architecture
Sarah Tiedeken O'Brien is a partner and owner of Vertical Arts Architecture in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. O'Brien discovered her talent for design early on, thanks to high school drafting classes in her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming. When she went on to the University of Oregon, architecture seemed a natural choice. "It was a really nice blend of being able to be creative, but also to think technically," she says.