Ridge House

Ridge House began life in the 1960s, as the Aspen residence of the Norwegian-born Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen, and was designed by Ellie Brickham, the town’s first practicing female architect; the house sits on some 35 unspoiled acres (one of a compound of R+B-designed buildings) and overlooks all four ski mountains. The architects, as committed preservationists, understood the significance of Brickham’s Aspen Modern design, yet the structure was deteriorating and no longer conformed to local building codes. Consequently, R+B’s solutions preserved the spirit, if not the letter, of the original.

The entry façade, comprised of ‘found’ cut-stone walls, combines the region’s building traditions with a modernist sensibility. The obverse – the western, view-facing façade – does precisely the opposite: fully glazed with full-height doors and windows, it showcases the remarkable view in its entirety.

Within, R+B transformed what had been Brickham’s organizing hallway into a 126-foot-long, eight-foot-wide, end-to-end north-south axis that constitutes, for all of the architecture’s neo-Scandinavian modesty, a celebratory event that feels almost palatial. Entering through the front door, one is greeted by a sunken double-height living room, which conveys both a midcentury swank and the grandeur of the west; the primary suite occupies the entirety of the structure to the south; the living, dining, and media rooms, and the kitchen/breakfast area, sit in the center; and the children’s zone, with craft and game rooms, lies to the north.

Though utterly transformed, Ridge House retains the alternation between opacity and transparency that had been the original’s essence, remains nearly within the preexisting footprint, and maintains the former house’s four wood-burning fireplaces, which, as they predated the current code, were allowed to remain. Thus did R+B preserve the presiding spirit of the past within the pristine precincts of the new.