By Steve Phillips
The elegant, mountain modern home perched at the top of Overhill Road in Silver Creek Estates was a standout among the custom homes featured during last summer’s Park City Showcase of Homes Tour.
Designed and built by Altitude Design Build, this masterpiece combines modern features with both traditional and cutting-edge building materials to create a distinctive home that eases hand-in-glove into its expansive, nine-acre mountain setting.
Such outside-the-box design/build concepts are a trademark of the Park City-based newcomer. Just two years old, Altitude Design Build (ADB) has completed half a dozen custom homes, with more in the planning stages. CEO Larry Feldman admits building a custom home can be a “daunting experience,” but the veteran public relations man turned developer says it doesn’t have to be. “It’s all about the process for me. I would rather have fewer clients and build quality homes in a timely manner and at a fair price. I learned long ago that a satisfied client is the bottom line in any business relationship. That’s what I live by,” he says.
ADB President and Managing Partner Lane Jacobson, a legendary custom home builder who has crafted estates for the likes of billionaire Ted Turner and Amway CEO Bill Nicholson, echoes Feldman’s philosophy. “What we’re able to do is build homes at cost plus 12 percent, period. We don’t and won’t mark-up or pad our material costs. We’re getting a reputation for building custom homes and charging what a home should cost.”
“It’s all about the process for me. I would rather have fewer clients and build quality homes in a timely manner and at a fair price. I learned long ago that a satisfied client is the bottom line in any business relationship. That’s what I live by.”
Of course, a custom home is only as good as its initial design. While ADB will gladly build a home for a client who has already retained the services of another architect, the firm pairs with gifted designer Bill Van Sickle, of Van Sickle Design and Drafting, whenever possible.
“There is a great synergy with Bill and his team,” says Feldman. “He has a design flair rivaling anyone in the business.”
“You see a lot of steel in the home. It lends a sharp, clean feel and combines well with the more organic components.”
When ADB and Van Sickle sat down together to envision the home on Overhill Road, Van Sickle saw an opportunity to create an “organic” structure, built into a steep hill, with commanding views of the entire Park City area. Van Sickle imagined a very long house (120 feet), facing southwest, with a low-pitched roof and deep overhangs. “That’s a big Frank Lloyd Wright trait and I’ve always loved his work,” he says.
Departing from time-honored residential designs, Van Sickle mixed materials normally used in industrial applications with more natural materials. “You see a lot of steel in the home. It lends a sharp, clean feel and combines well with the more organic components,” says Van Sickle. He points specifically to the exterior juxtaposition of grey Wyoming snow fence, white James Hardie concrete panels and earth-tone stacked stone.
Full-length windows and clerestories invite an abundance of natural light into the home, flooding the vaulted great room, dining area, even the master bedroom. A five-panel accordion-style door draws you immediately to the expansive back deck where arguably the finest view in all of Park City awaits. “That was deliberate,” insists Jacobson. “We wanted to make sure that the very first thing you noticed when you walked in were the far reaching vistas of both Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort, as well as the sprawling Snyderville Basin and Swaner Nature Preserve.” Inside, the views mirror those from the deck. Every picture tells a story, none more spectacular than the huge, windowed shower spanning the west wall of the master bath, offering an uninterrupted 180-degree vista.
Perhaps the most striking interior feature of the home is the massive, hot-rolled steel fireplace wall that frames the hip, new Flare fireplace in the great room. It’s a thematic feature repeated in other fireplaces throughout the house that “anchors” the design, according to Van Sickle.
“After spending two weeks telling everyone how great the home was, we felt it was simply too good to be true…so we decided to call it home.”
Allison Parkinson and Kayla Brown of CCG Interior Design in Salt Lake City furnished the home to perfection. “We wanted the interior to be contemporary, but not cold,” says Parkinson. Greys, caramels and an assortment of other earth tones have combined for a soothing mix of warm and cool.
When the Overhill Road home was completed just days before the Showcase, it was listed for sale at $5.75 million. Soon afterward, the Feldmans took it off the market and moved in. Says Feldman, with a smile, “After spending two weeks telling everyone how great the home was, we felt it was simply too good to be true… so we decided to call it home.”
