architecture
GIMME SHELTER
Written by COURTNEY FERRIS : Photographed by COLTON STIFFLER
Designed by MFGR Designs and architect Richard Charlesworth and built by CookStar Productions, a 576-square-foot garage in southwestern Montana makes a striking architectural statement thanks to detailing and materials that honor the local agricultural vernacular—elevating what could have been a mundane outbuilding to a thing of beauty.
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GRAY ISSUE No. TWENTY-ONE
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he Bridger Mountains region of Montana, where wildlife, ranches, and unpredictable weather patterns reign supreme, is one of the last places you’d expect to find edgy contemporary architecture. Yet Peter Costanti, of Bozeman, Montana–based firm MFGR Designs, in collaboration with architect Richard Charlesworth, bucked the trend with what may be Montana’s most handsome garage. Set on a large cattle ranch, this small-scale, small-budget project proves that even the most mundane of programmatic elements, a detached garage, can be transformed with thoughtful detailing. Designed to shelter both cars and dry firewood, the 576-square-foot structure packs outsize visual punch. Inspired by the metal agricultural sheds and outbuildings that are common on the ranches surrounding this remote site, the building is clad in dark gray–painted bonderized metal and polycarbonate greenhouse glazing and accented by a concrete retaining wall nestled into the slope. Beneath the overhanging roof, an 8-foot-tall redwood slat wall softens the entry experience, “giving a more tactile feel as you’re walking past and a more appealing approach as a pedestrian than metal would,” says Charlesworth. The slats overlap each other where they meet at the corner, a construction detail that salutes the log cabins prevalent in the area. Six fluorescent tube lights glow behind the polycarbonate wall, so at night the garage acts as a soft, hazily lit beacon—“a beautiful experience that welcomes the residents home,” says Costanti. h