“Our client wanted a sanctuary, his own beautiful little personal space,” says architect Paul Bertelli, design principal of Bozemanbased JLF & Associates, of the one-bedroom house his firm designed for a ranch property outside of Livingston, Montana. With so many guests sometimes staying at his nearby main ranch house, the owner felt the need for a private place where he could slip away to enjoy peace and quiet—and a selection of mostly Western-inspired works from his extensive holdings of art, photography and antiques. Though the aesthetically attuned client wanted the house to showcase his collections, he also hoped it would be an authentic and beautiful creation in its own right. Early on in their conversations, Bertelli showed him another house his firm had designed in the region, a structure inspired by
the local materials and humble building methods used by 19th-century immigrants to the Rocky Mountain West. “He really loved that little stone building,” Bertelli recalls. The architect also took note of his client’s admiration for early industrial-style, steel-framed windows and the spare yet finely detailed woodwork of the late 19th- and early 20th-century Arts and Crafts movement. The resulting structure bears all those stylistic signatures in a compact 2,000 square feet of living space arranged on two levels. Bertelli and his team, led by the project’s principal-in-charge, Logan Leachman, designed the house with walls of Montana moss rock, exposed ceiling timbers that were repurposed from regional corrals >>
The driveway passes beneath the great room; its window wall frames west-facing valley and mountain views. Alongside the drive, large quarry stones shore up an embankment on which sculptures are displayed. Plantings of fir trees create a lush backdrop.
Architecture by JLF & Associates
Construction by On Site Management
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