The Dream is in the Details of this Mountain Home

In the shadow of Mt. Crested Butte, rigorous design brings one couple's exact vision for their slopeside retirement retreat to fruition.

The property greets family and friends with a grand view, especially when aglow at twilight. Lighting designer Eric Naughton installed what homeowner Peter Esselstyn calls "a night-out button" - a system they use to remotely control most of the home's lights. "The house has this beautiful sense of arrival to it," explains Peter. "It's like angels singing."

Photography by James Ray Spahn

Written by Hayley M. Abernathy

Styling by Carolyn Connolly Spahn

As Peter and Pam Esselstyn began to imagine the specifics of retirement from successful careers in Boston, they came to a consensus almost immediately. “Within about five minutes,” Peter recalls, “we decided to retire out West in a ski community.” More specifically, somewhere they could ski in and ski out. For the Esselstyns, the small hamlet of Crested Butte, Colorado, with only about 1,600 permanent residents and iconic ski slopes, was perfect.

After purchasing a lot in a ski community there in 2016, their original plan was to wait until 2024 or 2025 to retire. “But we just couldn’t talk about anything else except building a house,” Peter says. So, when they realized finances would allow them to retire earlier, the real planning began.

“One of the first questions you have to answer is, how many people are we building the house for?” Peter explains. “And that decision drives things like, how big is the dining room table? How many bedrooms are there going to be? How many couches are going to fit in the living room — that kind of stuff.” With these essentials in mind, the vision began to take shape.

“We started writing all this down,” recounts Peter. After nine months of discussions, they had a “program document” — 20 pages detailing specific wants and needs for the home, prioritizing windows. “When people come to our house, we want them to come in and say, ‘Holy windows!’” Peter says with a laugh. “And we want to be able to take in the sunset any time of the year.”

After receiving bids from three architects, the Esselstyns chose Sunlit Architecture, a Crested Butte firm co-owned by Jennifer and Gary Hartman. After reviewing the program document, the two separately created initial drawings. Gary’s drawing included a round great room, and the primary suite Jennifer designed was exactly what the Esselstyns envisioned. “We scrapped everything else,” laughs Peter.

As the firm’s residential expert, Jennifer took the lead from there. “We worked with Peter and Pam to make every space unique, make every space well-thought-out,” she explains. After nine iterations, the architectural design was finalized.

Ultimately, the couple opted for a hybrid timber home consisting of approximately 4,500 square feet, with three bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms and three stories. After hiring Pike Builders, based in nearby Gunnison, the Esselstyns moved to Crested Butte full-time in April of 2019 and broke ground that June.

Now locals, Pam and Peter were able to actively participate in construction. The couple visited the project site daily, often just after skiing. “Having the Esselstyns so close was a major asset,” recalls Steve. “They became part of the Pike Builders family.” After one particularly heavy snowfall, the couple shoveled the snow so that work could continue. Jennifer continued to work closely with the Esselstyns throughout the process, providing construction administration services and coordinating with Pike Builders, subcontractors and tradespeople to ensure every aspect of construction brought the complex design to life.

Steve Pike, co-owner of Pike Builders, recalls: “There are so many details that you wouldn’t notice at first, but there are countless discoveries within the house.” Take for example the round, seven-sided great room and the echoes of its round form throughout the home. Plus, reclaimed timbers, handcrafted joinery, hand-forged steel, embedded LED lighting, a unique light tunnel feature, tile mosaics and what may be the most unique feature: a two-story rotunda clad in black walnut shiplap that separates the home’s public and private spaces.

While Pam and Peter did their own decorating, they sought the expertise of local lighting designer Eric Naughton to highlight their home’s architecture. “To us, the lighting was kind of the jewelry on the house,” Peter says. Eric used lots of indirect uplighting and backlighting to accentuate details and geometry in the home’s design. Eric’s work is especially notable on the exterior, uplighting the home’s posts and beams. Custom lighting also features prominently in the rotunda and in the great room, where it illuminates the handcrafted timberwork. “It was so fun to work with them,” Eric recalls, “because they were up for working on all these details.”

Despite unpredictable Colorado winters and the challenges of building during a pandemic, Pam and Peter moved into their new abode in 2021. The months and years of careful planning continue to pay off, as they start every morning with a view from bed of Mt. Crested Butte. “We wake up, we open the [remote-controlled] shade that’s up above the fireplace, and we look at the peak,” says Peter. “That’s pretty special.”