The Wasatch Live Work project is located on a gently sloping hillside in a residential neighborhood southeast of downtown Salt Lake City. The project was designed for a family of four who had lived on the property for over twenty years and wanted to reinvest in the fabric of their neighborhood to remain indefinitely. The clients called for an energy efficient home, a place for the family to connect, converse, and refresh; in addition, they wanted a separate work-from-home space. The client’s metal/wood working business required space where sparks from his metal work wouldn’t endanger his woodwork, and a space flooded with natural light for photographing his work.

The wood and metal clad gabled building volumes are organized around an auto courtyard which acts as a buffer between the work studio and the tranquil living spaces. We placed the gabled studio near the street, creating distance between the street traffic and the living spaces. A tall translucent overhead door at the Studio opens to a garage, activating the middle part of the site and connecting views from the large kitchen window and bedroom roof terrace above the garage.

The clients requested a minimal palette of concrete, white oak and steel within the residence, creating a neutral backdrop for sculpture and art. They viewed the project as a hands-on opportunity to create and collaborate with local craftsman and fabricators through design and construction. Both avid fossil collectors, they requested a fossil cleaning workshop in the basement and a series of built-in drawers for displaying their cleaned fossils in the living space. They put a unique touch on the floors as the client sculpted metal fossils which were cast into the concrete, ground and polished, at key locations in the basement and entry.