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Sun Valley Home and Design / Fall 2009 / Inside Angle

Inside Angle

(page 3 of 4)

Romantic Sun Valley story
I had just taken a new job when I met my wife-to-be at a wedding in Seattle. My new love interest was from Sun Valley, and within three months I quit my job and moved over to give our relationship a try. Originally I thought I would stay through the 1986-87 winter, then move back to Seattle. Nearly twenty-three years and two teen-age sons later, I’m still here.
 

Favorite part of working with your clients
Some of our homes have been like a fine aged wine. Over the many years our clients live in their homes, their identity has become almost inseparable from the home.

Why do architects love the Sun Valley Lodge?
The Lodge defines this place in a singular way. Beyond the small mining town, beyond the agricultural ranching town, it is the building that most represents what makes this place unique.
 

What project could improve our lives?
The Sun Valley Center for the Arts building and the entire planned Simplot property development. I think these projects will have more importance to the living community of Ketchum than the other tourist-oriented projects. I think it has the opportunity to become an important component in the day-to-day identity of the community.
 

How can local government promote small business?
In the central business core of Ketchum, I think ground floor businesses should be subsidized in some way.
 

How big should Sun Valley build their planned hotel for the base of River Run?
I think a hotel at the base of the mountain ought to be allowed to go as high as the developer would like to build it, as long as it is very close to the ski base.
 

Yin and yang of life in a small town
I run into people all the time who have lived in the valley for twenty or more years and have never heard of me. As a businessman, that grates on me a bit. As a resident who likes the outdoor life, it suits me fine.
 

Does architecture run in your blood?
My great-grandfather was a prominent early Seattle architect (Harlan Thomas), who designed, among others, the Sorrento Hotel, Harborview Hospital, the Corner Market building in Pike Place Market. Plus he was the chairman of the University of Washington department of architecture for about 14 years.
 

 

Why Idaho?
Fifteen years ago my wife and I moved from Palo Alto. We wanted to change our lifestyle and to raise our kids in an environment such as this.
 

How have your buildings contributed to the Valley?
I designed and built the Parks and Recreation Building at Atkinsons Park for the city of Ketchum. I’m very proud of that because it has served the community well. It is an inexpensive building and offers a place for people to gather. I also built one of the first LEED-certified homes in the Valley, in the Bellevue Triangle.
 

Favorite Valley landmark
I really like the new Sun Valley Pavilion. I like its progressive architecture and how it fits into the landscape. It also brings the community together as a place to celebrate music and the arts.
 

Your vision
A community that is involved in appropriate, sustainable growth. 
 

What is appropriate, sustainable growth?
A community that offers the average family a place to live and grow in a building that’s well designed. I’m working on a zero-footprint community as a model right now and something that we could consider for this community in the future.
 

Something our towns could use more of
The Valley’s towns need to focus on building density and diversity. Increased density will allow more growth within a town in order to save the outskirts and the open spaces. More diverse height limits and multi-family buildings will make housing affordable—not to be confused with low-income housing—for more people. We need denser buildings so people can buy a town home and let that value grow, rather than being forced into a deed-restricted, low-income housing project.
 

Where have we gone wrong?
Over the last twenty years, there has been a lot of waste and money pumped into the dream, and it has distorted what true living should be. Who the heck needs a 20,000-square-foot house? Honestly. We have been guided by money.
 

What can we do right?
Look at the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon, or the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco. The theme there is the same as what is needed here: get people back into the core of the city, where they can live and shop and eat and afford to be there.
 

Radical local opinion
In a walking community, two cars for a single family are unnecessary.

Role of an architect
Architects are dreamers of the future, what we think it should look like and feel like. >>>