CANYON HOUSE

Located in Emigration Canyon just above Salt Lake City, Utah this contemporary family residence of 2,500 SF was designed for a couple with young children. The home was sited to capture expansive canyon views while offering a series of gathering and entertainment spaces for the family, both indoors and out. The great room opens to the canyon with a 30’ operable wall to transform the space into an outdoor room. The warm colors of Corten steel cladding combine with board-formed concrete and glass for a textured, contextual, low-maintenance and modern material palette. The house earned the first LEED Silver green home certification in Utah with energy-efficient and sustainable design features throughout. The cladding is recycled steel shingles that turn a deep rust color and match the fall foliage colors in the mountain canyon. Natural light is brought into the house with Solatube skylights and heat is provided through an energy-efficient in-floor radiant heating system. The design required minimum excavation of the site and allowed for the retention of many of the native oaks on the lot. The modern house was designed by Sparano + Mooney Architecture for long-term flexibility with a lower floor multi-use space to house guests, a home office, a playroom or an art studio. Native, drought-tolerant landscaping elements irrigated with a rainwater catchment system compliment the architecture and further tie the home to its canyon setting.

The project has been featured in numerous design publications, including Dwell, and has earned multiple awards for design excellence.