SCIENCE, SUSTAINABILITY + SPIRITUALITY
SCIENCE, SUSTAINABILITY AND SPIRITUALITY JOIN FORCES IN ARCHITECTURE
NOVEMBER 15, 2016
Green is good! At Sparano + Mooney Architecture, our architects value providing innovative, modern and sustainable design solutions for our clients. So, we were excited to read that two of our award-winning projects, the Saint Joseph the Worker Church and the Saint Marguerite School, have recently taken steps to continue their conservation efforts.
Sparano + Mooney Architecture was honored to provide community outreach, programming, master planning and design services for the Saint Joseph the Worker Church in West Jordan, which was built in 2011. When the worship project was completed, the design of the building allowed for a reduction in water consumption and xeriscaping was also implemented to help conserve resources. The solar array, installed in 2015, is the latest addition to the parish’s sustainable outlook. The church installed a bank of 55 solar panels to the building, which has cut the power bill by one third. Should more panels be necessary in the future, the required infrastructure is in place. The panels have given the church the ability to produce electricity, be more self-sustaining, help care for the environment and reduce its power bill. “Going green is kind of a big commitment”, says pastoral associate Jeremy Castellano, but the investment has paid off – since the solar panels were installed, the Saint Joseph the Worker Parish has eliminated 15 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and offset the equivalent of more than 2,000 gallons of gasoline and 4.5 million smartphone charges.
Saint Joseph the Worker Church and Saint Marguerite School each received grants through Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky Renewable Energy program to cover a portion of the cost of adding the solar panels to the architecture. The program was initiated in 2006, and it has helped fund over 100 projects in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. The church is working with Synergy Power, who helped facilitate and install the panels, to monitor how much electricity the panels produce, and to reveal other fascinating details about how the church is reducing its carbon footprint. The monitor is situated in the Gathering Space so that visitors can also keep track of the energy data. You can also view the real time data of the solar panel array – just click HERE!
A similar monitor is installed at Saint Marguerite School, also designed by Sparano + Mooney Architecture. The school, located in Tooele, is the third Diocese of Salt Lake City facility in three years to install solar panels (Saint Thomas More Parish was the first to install panels to its parish center in 2014, followed by Saint Joseph the Worker Church). Principal Lorena Needham says that the 32-kilowatt solar array and accompanying monitor allows the teachers to incorporate data from the panels into their curriculum across academic disciplines, adding that “it will enhance our ability to teach care of the environment because we can show by our actions what it is we’re teaching”.
Photo courtesy Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church. © Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Church
The solar panel arrays on Saint Joseph the Worker Church and Saint Marguerite School are not yet large enough to power the entire facility, but the savings are measurable and significant nonetheless. However, as Castellano states, “it’s not only about saving money, which is of course important when you’re running a church on donations, but the real big pro is helping save the environment, and that’s part of what we look at is being Catholic here: protecting the environment and God’s creation, and this is our way of making a small, little difference in our little corner of the world”. Amen to that!
Thinking about starting an eco-friendly architectural project of your own? As experts in sustainability in architecture, we can provide you with sustainable design guidelines and audits, sustainable project planning, passive design and LEED consulting services, net zero projects and LEED certified architecture. Give us a call – our architects will be happy to talk to you about your next green design project in California, Utah and beyond!
SPOTLIGHT: BIG CARTEL
BRINGING ART TO THE SHOPPING CART WITH BIG CARTEL
OCTOBER 31, 2016
At Sparano + Mooney Architecture, we care deeply about our unique clients and strive to deliver thoughtful, innovative design solutions for each client’s vision for their architecture and interiors. Our clients are our inspiration, our bread and butter and our driving force. We love what we do and do what we love, and are eternally grateful to be able to work with people and companies that help us cultivate the culture of excellence that defines our firm! Which is why we are so excited to write about Big Cartel, a company that not only shares our core values, but a fantastic architectural client – we are designing their company headquarters in Utah - and an incredibly cool webstore business provider dedicated to assisting creatives in reaching their potential.
Launched in October 2004, Big Cartel is the brainchild of Matt Wigham, co-founder and CEO, and Eric Turner, co-founder and design director. As Matt explains, “the idea for Big Cartel came about when I needed a simple way to sell my band’s [merchandise] online. I wasn’t too thrilled with any of the existing shopping cart systems out there, so being a web guy I decided to make my own. Pretty soon I realized that a lot of my other friends could use this for their bands, tees, art, etc. and Big Cartel officially launched". Although the company was originally tailored to bands and record labels, Matt and his team soon found that creatives from diverse art communities were craving what Big Cartel was able to deliver: a simple online store where they could showcase their hustle and make a living doing so.
The site offers makers, innovators, designers, musicians and other artists the platform to build a unique online store, run a business and develop an independent brand – all while keeping the process straightforward, so that the creatives can focus their resources on being, well…creative! The simple tools, which include several sleek, vibrant pre-made webpage “themes” as well as customizable shopping cart options, help the makers organize their shop, manage and sell their work and engage with their patrons, fans and local communities. Big Cartel also assists with the tricky technical aspects of building and maintaining an online store, such as real-time statistics, search engine optimization, order management, promotional tools and mobile-friendly programming.
Today, nearly a million artists and makers internationally have used Big Cartel to set up shop and run their businesses on their own terms. That number is beyond impressive, and speaks to the sense of solidarity that the platform, and the support it provides, allows each user. Independent design brands include Friends of Type, a graphic design cohort stationed in Brooklyn and San Francisco offering bright, original typographic design and lettering in the form of prints, objects, posters, tees, fonts and artwork; The Good Twin, a Los-Angeles based illustrator’s shop known for its fun and sunny stationery; Herriott Grace, a father-daughter venture selling beautiful, hand carved and hand turned wooden objects from Canada; and Lucy Kirk, a Nottingham, England, centered illustrator, ceramicist and farmer whose works exhibit titles such as “Tiger Tamer", “Beryl the Brawler” and “Cool Mermaid”.
If you think sifting through seven figures of stores is a bit daunting, look no further than Shop Indie, Big Cartel’s curated listing of hot stuff. Members of the Big Cartel team – including staff as well as clients – take turns selecting themed groupings of items with product names like “Hold Me Tight Leather Vase” (by Strups), “Afrodisiac Graphic Novel” (by Jim Rugg), “Keep Fresh, Stay Rad Postcards” (by Friends of Type) and “Skull Candles” (by blubirdsoy). With Shop Indie, Big Cartel goes the extra mile in truly bolstering the makers who sign up for service. As Matt says, Shop Indie “is something we feel very strongly about and hope that as more people become aware of the [numerous] unique, independent sellers on Big Cartel, we can help shift the concept of buying online toward one that supports more inspired products”. So, if you’re a burgeoning creative, in need of an awesome gift or simply searching for some inspiration, look no further than Big Cartel – you never know what you might discover…We are so pleased they selected us as their Salt Lake City architects for their office design!
DESIGN WEEK
IT’S HERE AND IT’S HAPPENING! DESIGN WEEK, OCTOBER 17-22
OCTOBER 20, 2016
That’s right – Salt Lake Design Week is officially underway, and we are beyond excited to be a part of this city-wide cultural extravaganza! As Salt Lake City architects deeply committed to producing and inspiring great design, we can’t wait to sample the artistic cornucopia that this creative-minded city has to offer this week. So get ready to sharpen your creative edge and join us for what is shaping up to be a stellar event…
The intent of Salt Lake Design Week is to raise awareness of the impact that all design, including architecture, advertising, photography, fashion, product, interior and graphic, has on Utah, its residents and visitors. Salt Lake Design Week assembles professionals, students, entrepreneurs, architects, educators and broader members of the community to herald design in our fantastic metropolis. Impressively, since its inception five years ago, Salt Lake Design Week has engaged over 50,000 people and continues to motivate critical thinking in even the youngest of participants. Sparano + Mooney Architecture has participated almost every year with open studio tours, architect talks, exhibitions, installations and design award celebrations. Some of you may remember the fashion show runway installation architect Anne Mooney helped coordinate for her University of Utah architecture students during Design Week 2013.
This year a series of events – workshops, lectures, business development sessions, film screenings, studio tours and exhibitions to name a few – will encourage collaboration and inspiration among Salt Lake’s numerous design groups, museums, architects, businesses and educational and cultural institutions. Through these offerings, Salt Lake Design Week seeks to provide forums for professionals and the general public alike to interact and learn from each other, and in doing so, initiate a stronger creative community. How cool is that?!
A cross-section of events include: “Designing Gender: The Art of Equality”, a conversation about the intersection of marketing, design and social science, and how advertising can affect the realities of the people it influences (held at Studio Elevn); “Monsters + Mayhem”, a judged mini-monster movie competition with keynote speech and critique, hosted by OctoLeague and the Salt Lake Film Society (held at the Tower Theatre); “Morph 3D”, an exploration of consumer virtual reality and shared digital consciousness (held at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art); and the Bizarre Bazaar closing party, a so-called “psychedelic sideshow and soiree” (held at Shades of Pale Brewing Tap Room). In addition, several studio tours form an integral component of Salt Lake Design Week. Tour stops include Contravent, Jibe Media, Dinng, Super Top Secret, Struck, Modern8 and Brute Squad. These personal and private tours offer eye-opening insight into the creative processes honed by some of the city’s most notable design firms, and we have enjoyed being featured as top Salt Lake architects in past events and studio tours.
As part of Salt Lake Design Week, be sure to check out the DesignArts ’16 Exhibition at the Rio Gallery. The exhibition closing reception and celebration will take place Friday, October 21st from 6-9pm. Award-winning work by Sparano + Mooney Architecture is on display and we hope to see you there! If we don’t have the chance to meet during Salt Lake Design Week, we’d love the opportunity to discuss our design philosophy and to create a unique work of architecture for your next civic, municipal, institutional or residential project in the American West!
Salt Lake Design Week is hosted by the Salt Lake City chapter of AIGA, the Professional Association for Design. For more information, and to purchase tickets to selected events, please visit the Salt Lake Design Week website. Design matters!
REFLECTIONS FROM THE BIENNALE
REFLECTION FROM THE VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2016
OCTOBER 18, 2016
At Sparano + Mooney, we are mad about architecture. For us, great design is at the heart of our Los Angeles, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah, based practice and our architects are wholeheartedly focused on delivering thoughtful, innovative, sustainable and contemporary design solutions to each and every client. We explore hyper-specific cultural cues and strive to construct a meaningful relationship between modern architecture and the experience of its inhabitants. Which is why we were so excited to visit the mothership of international architecture – the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016. We were eager to explore visionary architectural creations from architects from around the globe and to be inspired by the plethora of architectural delights on offer. Do other firms share our core values? Does an architect in Ireland approach design in a similar manner to an architect in the American West? How can we continue to progress the cause of research-based conceptual design and architecture to solve the real problems we confront each day? What can we learn from our peers around the globe? Below is a snapshot of the incredible installations and exhibitions we discovered during our trip.
First off, we were blown away by the truly amazing entry space to the Arsenale Pavilion – the vast former shipbuilding facility in Venice that houses the main part of the exhibition – designed by notable Chilean architect and Pritzker Prize architect Alejandro Aravena. The Elemental founder curated this year’s Biennale and created the installation using seven miles of scrap metal and over 105,000 sq. ft. of drywall discarded after the Venice Art Biennale 2015. Sections of crumpled studs are suspended from the ceiling, and the walls covered with textured, stacked sections of multi-tonal plasterboard. Across both the Arsenale and Giardini Pavilions, Aravena used more than 100 tons of scrap material to create not only beautiful works of art / architectural space, but also to spark dialogue around the issues of waste, pollution, sustainability, inequality, housing and quality of life addressed by architects in their work around the world.
We were also intrigued by the “Losing Myself” exhibition at the Irish Pavilion, which explored the design of spaces for people with dementia. We were interested in the consideration of architecture’s social function and the way spatial cognition can help us understand how humans interpret their surroundings. The floor of this installation accommodated a large drawing of the Alzheimer’s Respite Center located in Dublin, Ireland. The dynamic drawing was animated by multiple projected hands, representing 16 individuals who live in the Center. A simultaneous soundscape projected murmured conversations and other quotidian noises, creating a sense of layered confusion. The architect’s installation communicates some of the shifts in spatial perception caused by dementia and the challenges faced when designing habitable spaces for those suffering from the condition.
“Losing Myself” Installation, the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 (photo by Anne Mooney, architect)
We found the model of Boris Bernaskoni’s Matrex building compelling because of the successful translation from concept to large scale realization. Matrex is the primary public building in Skolkovo, Russia, intended as a multifunction space for retail, business and arts activities. The model is spectacular – it is well crafted and grand in scale, but maintains a sense of simplicity, effectively communicating the interconnection of pyramidal and Matryoshka-esque shapes that constitute the building’s form.
“Matrex” model by Boris Bernaskoni at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 (photo by Anne Mooney, architect)
Finally, we were drawn to the “Against the Tide” installation at the Chilean Pavilion, not least because the architects chose to feature an ethereal architectural space entirely out of recycled plastic bags. The purpose of the exhibition was to highlight the efforts by emerging architects working specifically within the Central Valley, a rural area of Chile. These architects focus primarily on the social aspects of architecture and how the built environment shapes residents’ daily lives. The issues that affect these communities are often fluid and in flux – hence the symbolic wall of plastic bags wafting in a “tidal” ebb and flow that so caught our eye.
“Against the Tide” Installation, the Chilean Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 (photo by Anne Mooney, architect)
There is so much to experience at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and this report is just a drop in the proverbial bucket. The next Biennale will take place in 2018 – we hope to see you architects and architectural buffs there!
DENISE SCOTT BROWN
FROM VENICE BEACH TO THE VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE: The “Wayward Eye” of Denise Scott Brown
OCTOBER 17, 2016
Every two years, the international architecture community comes together for a truly inspirational presentation: the Venice Architecture Biennale. Held in Venice, Italy, the 2016 edition runs from May 28th until November 27th, and includes 88 participants from 37 countries, as well as 62 national participants and a curated selection of associated events. The Biennale is truly THE place to engage with cutting-edge, thought-provoking architecture – which is why, when Anne Mooney and John Sparano recently visited Venice, they understandably made the Biennale the focus of their stay. Here, we present a blog series about their architectural discoveries…
If you are fortunate enough to find yourself living la dolce vita in Venice, Italy, this autumn, then embrace your inner culture vulture and meander to the Palazzo Mora: here, you’ll find a revelatory exhibition of works by architect, photographer, writer, educator and feminist icon Denise Scott Brown. As part of the Venice Architecture Biennale collateral event "Time, Space, Existence", the "Wayward Eye – The Photography of Denise Scott Brown" exhibition is designed and curated by Scott Brown and chronicles two formative decades of photographing cities from Venice, Italy, to Venice, California. Hosted with the European Cultural Centre, the exhibition showcases Scott Brown’s acclaimed photographic works, which will also be featured in a forthcoming publication by Metropolis Books. Sparano + Mooney Architecture offers sustainable, contemporary architecture and design to our clients from offices in Los Angeles, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah, so we were particularly interested in this exhibition of works that in part examines our roots in the American West.
Scott Brown has been unquestionably prolific in her architecture and planning career that has spanned six decades. Principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in Philadelphia, she is regarded as one of the most influential architects of the 20th and 21st centuries due to her award-winning design practice, theoretical writings and teachings. Though her built work has garnered acclaim as an architect, she is perhaps best known for her legendary studio course and book with Steven Izenour and Robert Venturi, titled Learning from Las Vegas: the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, in which the visionary architects sought to capture the vibrant architecture and culture of Sin City – “things that would shock you and open up your eyes and might make you aesthetically more sensitive”, reflects Scott Brown. The photographs within Learning from Las Vegas
The photographs within Learning from Las Vegas speak to Scott Brown’s persistent relationship with capturing mundane aspects within urban life: “I shot commercial architecture built for quick returns, social succession and invasion, machine romanticism, freeway lyricism, violent juxtapositions between freeways, pylons, and rural cottages, symbolic communication by architecture and signage, and interesting activities and ways of life – a mash of 1960s urbanism”, Scott Brown explains. Through this architect’s camera’s lens, she had begun to do more than just record, she had started to analyze.
This approach also informed Scott Brown’s teachings, which have undeniably influenced generations of architecture students and aficionados alike. “Students in architecture need concrete examples to understand concepts like ‘symbol in space before form in space’. My aim was not to answer questions but to help students learn to seek answers” she has explained. Scott Brown’s own search began when she was a student herself, visiting Venice, Italy, with her first husband Robert Scott Brown for the Congrès International d’Architecture Modern (CIAM) Summer School in 1956. During this Grand Tour, she learned to reconsider her photographs within a broader geographical, political and socio-economic framework. From Italy, her next stop was the American Southwest in the 1960s: Muscle Beach, Santa Monica, Las Vegas – arid landscapes and sun-bleached vernacular architecture inundated with radiant signage promoting the American dream. So many of these images have become iconic in their own right, but Scott Brown insists they are not works of art. “I’m not a photographer,” she states. “I shoot for architecture – if there’s art here it’s a by-product. Yet the images stand alone. Judge what you see”.
"Wayward Eye – The Photography of Denise Scott Brown" is on view as part of "Time, Space, Existence" at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Palazzo Mora. Until November 27th, 2016.
PULSAR HOUSE PROJECT AWARD
A STAR IS BORN: Pulsar House Project Wins 2016 Design Arts Utah Award
OCTOBER 11, 2016
Sparano + Mooney Architecture is delighted to announce that our Pulsar House Project has been recognized with a 2016 DesignArts Utah Award! The Utah Division of Arts + Museums DesignArts Program is dedicated to the promotion of excellence in the diverse fields of architecture, graphic and industrial design in Utah. They strive to help the citizens of Utah see, experience, use and value the art of design that surrounds us daily – we are honored that our architects were chosen as a recipient of this year’s award!
Creating a design for a client’s new home is always a great opportunity for an architect. For this house, an investigation into pulsars (short for pulsating radio star) formed the conceptual foundation of this residential architecture project. Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. Observations of a pulsar in a binary neutron star system were used to indirectly confirm the existence of gravitational radiation. This residential project was designed for a pilot who envisioned an ultra-modern house on earth, connected to the stars.
Our team analyzed the activity of two particular pulsars, the Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) and Vela Pulsar (PSR J0835-4510 or PSR B0833-45) on the date of August 16th, 2010, a day that the client wished to commemorate through the architecture of his mountain home. The forms were generated to highlight the physical relationships between each pulsar trail and the mountain site located in a canyon between Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah.
In a series of physical study models for the architecture, each pulsar trail is represented as the centerline of the negative space, the magnitude of the pulsar defines the lofting boundary of the centerline, and the geological location of the site is shown as the original 4” x 4” x 4” volume. At the same time our architects developed digital models – full scale in the computer – to study the form and precisely model the spaces and interior experience. In the programming studies for the house, the pulsar trail acts as a timeline moving through each scene of the client’s daily activities. These events are all connected accurately in the architectural plan and the cross sections with the pulsar location at a specific moment. The final massing is a combination of TIME (programming study) and SPACE (formal study).
The architectural design process incorporated this body of research with broader investigations of the solar system, and generated residential architecture that is simultaneously site specific and universally grounded. In responding to the mountain site, we positioned the form of the house straddling the ridgeline, engaged with the slope at the high end of the site and floating above the land as it falls away, and the linear windows on the façades are meticulously designed to create a dramatic projection effect provided by natural sunlight, which changes continuously according to the time of day and seasons. We selected metal as the façade finish, which has a patina of age, sustainability, recycling and adaptive re-use. This material is also an ideal architectural response to the local climate in Utah.
The architects at Sparano + Mooney are over the moon with the award, and we invite you learn more about the project by visiting an exhibition showcasing this design and all of the other 2016 DesignArts Award winners. The DesignArts Utah ’16 Exhibition will be held September 9th – October 21st, 2016 in the Rio Gallery at the historic Rio Grande Train Station in downtown Salt Lake City. The exhibition closing reception and celebration is October 21st, 2016 from 6-9pm and will coincide with Salt Lake Design Week and Salt Lake Gallery Stroll at the Rio Gallery. Then let us know if you are ready for our architects to design a one-of-a-kind work of architecture for your residential project in Park City, Salt Lake City or Los Angeles!
FIRM OF THE YEAR!
SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE IS NAMED AIA WESTERN MOUNTAIN REGION FIRM OF THE YEAR!
OCTOBER 11, 2016
Sparano + Mooney Architecture is honored to announce that it has been awarded the American Institute of Architects Western Mountain Region Architectural Firm of the Year for 2016!
Each year, the AIA Western Mountain Region recognizes substantial achievements by an architectural practice in the western United States who embodies the cause of creating an excellent built environment. The prestigious Firm of the Year Award identifies the continuing collaboration among individuals in a firm who have produced distinguished architecture over a period of at least 10 years, have made significant contributions to the AIA, the profession and their community, and have transcended their regional boundaries in making these contributions. Significantly, this year’s award is the first ever to recognize a Utah architect for the Firm of the Year in the 37-year history of the AIA Western Mountain Region Honor Awards. Based in Washington, D.C., the American Institute of Architects has been the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging architectural professionals, and allied partners since 1857. With nearly 300 state and local chapters, the AIA serves as a voice of the architecture profession and the resource for architects and its members in service to society.
Principal architects John P. Sparano, FAIA, NCARB, and Anne G. Mooney, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, formed Sparano + Mooney Architecture in 1997. From their award-winning studios in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, California, the firm collectively and architects individually draw inspiration from the context of the American West. The region’s unique history, landscape, materials, architecture and culture has deeply informed and inspired the firm’s architecture which has been commissioned by clients in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Colorado and California. Significant project types include art museums, cultural centers, performing arts projects, recreation and resort projects, institutional and commercial work and private residences in Park City, Los Angeles, Denver, Santa Fe and Salt Lake City. Sparano + Mooney Architecture is a practice that believes in the potential of the American West as a point of departure for world class design and has consistently produced a body of work dedicated to contributing to the elevation of a strong regional design movement.
In addition to numerous local, regional and national design awards for built and conceptual work, Sparano + Mooney Architecture has previously been recognized with election to the AIA College of Fellows (John Sparano, 2015), the AIA Western Mountain Region Young Architect of the Year Award (Anne Mooney, 2014), the AIA Utah Bronze Medal Award (John Sparano, 2013) and the AIA Utah Architectural Firm of the Year Award (2012). The Salt Lake City architects have design work that can currently be seen in an exhibition at the Rio Gallery in Salt Lake City until October 21, 2016.
Congratulations to the Sparano + Mooney Architecture team for this monumental achievement, and thank you to our visionary colleagues and clients for your dedication and contributions to the firm and our work together!
PUBLICATION: UTAH STYLE + DESIGN, PARK CITY MODERN
PARK CITY ARCHITECTURE DESIGNED BY SPARANO + MOONEY ARCHITECTURE IS FEATURED ON THE COVER OF UTAH STYLE + DESIGN, SUMMER 2016
SEPTEMBER 19, 2016
If you are looking for a pleasant way to pass time indoors as the seasons change, look no further than the Summer 2016 issue of Utah Style + Design - a Park City modern home designed by Sparano + Mooney Architecture has been featured on the cover!
The corresponding article, “Opening Act”, written by Natalie Taylor and photographed by Scot Zimmerman, showcases the “strikingly beautiful” contemporary residence, which “combines dynamic architecture with high-style livability and sustainability”. The clients were clear about choosing the right Park City architect and about their must-haves: “We wanted a relatively quiet house with no duplicate spaces. It was critical that the house feels like it belongs on the land and that it fits peacefully into its environment without feeling forced”.
Located in a mountain setting with views of Park City Mountain Resort, the Utah Winter Olympic Park and the Glenwild Golf Course, the architecture and design approach to this mountain modern home sought to embed the architecture into its site. Exterior materials are both rough and refined: a highly textured board-formed concrete wall is capped with smooth wood panels and glazed surfaces above. These materials reference the highly textured scrub oak prevalent at the site under an expansive western sky. The vegetated rooftop incorporates native plant materials and will mirror the surrounding landscape each season: from the snow in winter to green in the spring to muted brown and yellow tones of late summer.
The house celebrates Utah’s brilliant light and raw beauty as nature provided the architectural inspiration. As architect Anne Mooney explains in the article, “Utah has incredible environmental scale and you want spaces that refer to the mountains, the sky and the horizon. But in a home, you want more personal, human scaled spaces”. The siting therefore maximizes its passive solar orientation bringing light deep into the house in the winter and shading the living spaces through well-considered overhangs in the summer. Outdoor living spaces are integrated adjacent to the master suite and great room and a rooftop deck that overlooks a nearby golf course. The green Park City home, has been certified LEED Gold, and incorporates renewable energy with a ground-source heat pump and high performance, energy efficient building systems.
Sparano + Mooney Architecture is delighted to have been able to work with the client to deliver a beautiful, livable mountain modern home and to have contributed positively to the Utah architectural landscape. And, we are honored to have been featured in Utah Style + Design, which continually showcases the best of Utah and the mountain west’s design, architecture and dining, as well as entertaining ideas for living the good life at home. The magazine features unique and beautiful interiors, decorative treatments, lush landscapes, inspiring entertaining ideas and provocative residential and commercial architecture. Published with the discerning homeowner in mind, this award-winning magazine provides its readers with innovative ideas and interesting stories, insightful writing and lavish full-color photography, sharing the best of Utah style throughout the state and beyond. A big thank you to the magazine for including us and our work as architects serving Park City in this category!