carney architects, jackson, wyo.
“Our clients were moving from a major city to Wyoming and came with a preconceived notion of a log cabin,” says Eric Logan, AIA. So the architect proposed a design that incorporates log construction, with its solidity and romantic appeal, but also opens the house to surrounding meadows and distant mountain views. The result? The homeowners are as thrilled as our jury was with this “reinterpretation of a log house.”
The modernized log walls serve an organizational as well as aesthetic purpose. “Three pavilions are connected by this log spine,” Logan explains. Pinwheeled around a south-facing courtyard, the pavilion layout gives the owners an outdoor space with both full sun exposure and protection from prevailing winds. The logs also shield the interiors from northern blasts, while the hefty construction frees other elevations to capture those panoramic views in large expanses of glass. Each pavilion and the interiors within enjoy a “different relationship to the site,” Logan says.
The house, said our judges, “takes traditional materials and pursues a new sensibility.”
principal in charge: Eric Logan, AIA, Carney Architects
project team: Jim Cappuccino, AIA, and Meghan Hanson, intern architect, Carney Architects
general contractor: Tony Chambers, Chambers Design-Build, Pinedale
landscape architect: Mark Hershberger, Hershberger Design, Jackson
interior designer: Nina Hancock, Hancock + Hancock, Chicago
project size: 3,611 square feet
site size: 10 acres
construction cost: Withheld
photography: Paul Warchol Photography
