Mountain Timber Home | Perfect Mountain Getaway

Perfect Mountain Getaway

October 2008 | Timber Home Living
by: Reed Karaim | photos: Heidi Long

When a couple goes back to the drawing board to rethink the design of their vacation retreat, a dream is finally built.

The best-laid plans are actually not always the plans you want to go with. So it went for Nancy and Gary Pollock, who had locked down a design for a traditional three-story vacation home with log siding. It was to be built on a beautiful piece of wooded property nestled between a lake and a creek in northwestern Montana. It was supposed to have been perfect, but the thing is, it just wasn’t. “I have a landscape-architect friend who said, ‘This house doesn’t do this site justice,’” Gary remembers.

Gary’s friend suggested a friend of his own: Barry Gehl, a partner at Krannitz Gehl Architects in Seattle. The firm primarily does custom residential work and is known for its innovative design.

And so the original plan was completely scrapped and, in its place, a vision for a modernist timber home.

The new design combines some of the Krannitz Gehl’s signature touches: erasing barriers between interior and exterior living spaces and exposing the home’s structural elements as part of the design. But it also breaks down the traditional housing ”box” into a series of separate structures, built to look like cabins, each providing its own unique experience and focusing on a different view. Low-roofed portals or vestibules connect three of the cabins:the main house, the master bedroom and the kid’s cabin. The fourth, a guesthouse, is separate but similar in appearance.

This was an important factor for Gary, an avid sportsman, who wanted to capture the feeling of an old fishing camp. “I wanted something architecturally interesting, but not ostentatious. This house is contemporary, but it also has a down-to-earth cabin feel,” he says.

That combination may seem hard to pull off, but Barry says one reason the design succeeds is simple: “Even with its modern approach,” he says, “it’s still a timber frame home.”

And while the structure does in fact make a bold statement, it also fits gracefully into its natural surroundings. Contemporary in feel, the home relies on naturally stained wood, a stone chimney and thoughtful landscaping to connect with the rugged topography of the lake. The organic feeling of the timber frame contributes to the effect, particularly by extending the ceiling beams through the outside walls to a deep, dramatic overhang that shades walls of glass.

Malmquist Construction of Whitefish, Montana, built the house with reclaimed wood, including the dramatic 8-by-18-inch Douglas fir ceiling beams. “It’s all salvaged, taken out of old barns, bridges and mines,” says owner Casey Malmquist. “The beauty is in the character of the wood. It’s also very stable.”

The Pollock’s home couldn’t be farther from the idea they started with and yet somehow, it’s exactly what they wanted. “I love everything about this house,” says Gary.

Home Plan Details:
Square footage: 4,505
Timber producer: Malmquist Construction

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