Setting a stage for Big Sky Country
Montana home designed to showcase mountains, meadow and river setting
With views of a deep green meadow, a mountain range, a river and the never-ending stretch of blue that gave Montana it’s Big Sky Country moniker, how can a home in the midst of all that still wow its residents?
That’s what architects were up against in the design of a home called Stillwater — named for the Stillwater River it sits beside — on 35 acres outside of Whitefish, Mont. Another challenge was erasing all traces of a county road that once ran along the river.
The design begins with a dramatic approach to the home with a dedicated focus on the front entryway. Stepping inside — and through — the 3,428square-foot residence, views alternate from the river to the sky, and then from the water to the mountains.
At one end there’s a primary bedroom, with an office next door and a view to the meadow. That leads to the main family living space — with kitchen, living and dining rooms and a private TV lounge.
Another office, at the opposite end of the long, linear construction, provides a view of the river.
Natural wood has been used throughout Stillwater’s interior. The siding is beetle-kill pine, stained grey and used both inside and out to blend the spaces. Sustainable features include passive solar design, deep-roof overhangs and an open-loop ground source heat pump.
Stillwater took two years to design and build and was completed in 2018.
Architect Kelby Riegsecker, of Prentiss Balance Wickline Architects in Seattle, Wash., answers a few questions about Stillwater:
How does the flow of the home work?
It was really this initial programming phase that helped us to orient each portion of the house along a central corridor spine, with each space off of it. Since we weren’t confined to an urban site, we pulled the volumes apart to set up the exterior main courtyard with the Big Sky view.
The river-side dining patio off the kitchen looks northeast for the morning light. The fireside patio off the living room gives ample room for reading outdoors.
Every space is somehow connected to the outdoors, giving a respite which offers a unique view during different times of the day and throughout the different seasons.
Your clients wanted a home that made just a “light touch” to the area. How did you achieve that?
It’s interesting to say it was a “light touch,” as we had quite a bit of earth moved to create the final grading, and additional trees added to return the site back to its natural state.
Originally, there was a county road that ran by the river. But a recent slide failure caused the road to be moved to its current position, to the south edge of the property.
Great care was taken in siting the house away from the riverbend and reducing the surcharge of the soil on the slope. The geotechnical engineer recommended reducing the slope of the riverbank — which prompted the idea of lowering the slope enough to have a better view to the river.
So many times, on our projects we try not to disturb the site, but in this case it seemed appropriate.
What were the challenges?
I think the main challenge was just understanding that, due to the existing roadbed, previous slide failure and unnatural features of the current site, that it really did need to be fully remediated in order to return it to its original glory.
But I wouldn’t say it was too much of a challenge because the clients were on board for everything, and we had a great general contractor who could pull it off.
Is privacy a concern?
Privacy was definitely a concern, which was a primary influence in our initial programming and relationships between different parts of the house. The primary bath and shower have a full-height sliding door exposed to the meadow. Again, it is amazing what some simple new contours achieve with privacy from the road — other than the occasional deer walking by.