Set in Mazama, Washington, in the heart of the Methow Valley, Second Gear by Johnston Architects (JA) is the culmination of a multi-phase project that began in 2019 with Gear Loft, an award-winning 750-square-foot outpost built for gear storage, sleeping, and sauna use. Completed in 2025 at 1,490 square feet, the new residence, Second Gear, gives homeowners Heidi and Leslie a full-time home in the valley they'd spent years getting to know, and stands as a rare example of a house shaped gradually, through lived experience with the land itself.

Second Gear extends the material language of Gear Loft, translating its mountain-inspired forms into a space built for year-round living. Together with Gear Loft and a carport, the new home forms a semi-circle oriented around views, wind patterns, snow movement, and solar exposure, what architects Mary and Ray Johnston describe as a "micro-climate within the larger environment." The roofs are designed to hold snow rather than shed it, echoing the slopes of the surrounding mountains while reducing damage risk and adding a natural layer of insulation through freezing winters.

At the center of the home is a transparent great room, with window walls opening up and down the valley for a constant visual connection to the Cascade Sawtooths and the Okanogan highlands. High-performance windows, super insulation, and heat pumps keep the home efficient without closing it off from the landscape it was built to face.

The project reflects a years-long relationship between architect and client. What started as a temporary mountain outpost evolved alongside the homeowners themselves into a permanent home, with the phased approach giving them time to understand the site before settling on its final form.