Into the Woods

A DRAMATIC convergence in the HIGH SIERRA brings Tahoe’s storied BACKCOUNTRY to the FOREGROUND

Into the WOODS PAUL DYER LEILANI MARIE LABONG

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Feature (Tahoe)

Feature (Tahoe)

Hand-dyed leather panels, walnut wood planking, velvet cotton pillows and a custom ROSEMARY HALLGARTEN rug make the bedroom’s dramatic scale seem more intimate.

“I wanted to CELEBRATE the scale by choosing FURNISHINGS that made the owners feel like the interior living ENVIRONMENT was a PART of the Sierra Nevada LANDSCAPE.”

Feature (Tahoe)

Architect TED BROBST designed angular roof planes to echo the High Sierra ridgelines.

Pavilion-like spaces and grand-scale windows capture nature in full-size glory.

When designing a home in Martis Camp, a luxury real estate community located near North Lake Tahoe in the High Sierra, architects have little choice but to capture as much raw beauty as possible in their schematics—the setting’s skyscraping pines, lit with rosy alpenglow against the distant silhouette of the Carson Range, offer endless ready-made inspiration.

For Ted Brobst of Truckee-based WardYoung Architecture & Planning, who was charged with creating a getaway for a couple of adventure-loving golf fanatics, matching the scale of the home to nature’s grandeur—think a towering 25-foot ceiling—was part intuition and partly guided by his clients’ vision for a “mountain-modern retreat.” Brobst sourced a cache of long, thick steel beams—despite the transport challenges posed by snowy highways and rural mountain roads—to frame vast glass windows, flooding the interiors with natural light. Just like the home’s rich cedar cladding and stacked Wyoming stone, the sun’s warmth and soft illumination “only reinforce the connection to the outdoors,” says the architect, who teamed with El Dorado Hills-based interior designer Barbara Riera for the project.

“I wanted to celebrate the scale by choosing furnishings that made the owners feel like the interior living environment was a part of the Sierra Nevada

landscape,” says Riera of her own guiding impulse. The leather wall-paneled master bedroom features a king-size platform bed by Hudson that complements the sheer expanse of the space, while a grandiose, tufted leather custom chaise in the upstairs lounge matches the specs of a queen-size bed. Layered throughout the home, textured upholstery spanning cotton velvet to mohair offers an open invitation to curl up, while John Pomp handblown glass chandeliers add sumptuous warmth to the inviting tableau.

“It’s radiant and abundant and seems to cast a spell,” says Riera. •

Feature (Tahoe)

Clockwise from top left: A large window exposure in the master bath gives the illusion of being in nature. A building palette of steel, cedar and stone forms a striking great room. In the master suite, a crushed velvet CHRISTIAN LIAIGRE chaise is a relaxing spot for a sunny sojourn.

The hallway functions as a gallery space for art and wine on display.