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Case Study Video
From an unforgettable exterior design to its completely uninterrupted views, Pinnacle Sky is a project that exemplifies Upwall’s audacious mountain modern approach. Take a tour in the video below.
Case Study Video Transcript
Michael Upwall, Architect, Upwall Designs: The whole modern language and the whole modern philosophy is to get out of the way of the view, to get out of the way of yourself, and to respond to what the sense of place is. What is the landscape, what is the land to be a part of that?
This home is situated in a development called Promontory, which is not on the ski mountain, but it sits back and looks up at the ski mountains. So that's your view. Instead of being part of it and in it, you get the perspective and the context and the panoramic experience of the mountains. So it's a very special place.
Gary Hill, Builder, Co-Owner, Midway Construction: You can live in the postcard, or you can look at the postcard, and I would say Promontory absolutely looks at the postcard. This is one of those locations that you would want to be if you're coming to the Park City area.
Upwall: We had a client that had seen one of our homes and reached out to us. We met them on the lot, and we just kind of wandered on the lot until we found a spot that felt magical to them. And then on the spot, what's your favorite view? That's my job, is to maximize the potential of the property. Here's this panorama view of the mountains, right? So let's get a little more granular. What's your favorite part of that view? Which peaks do you like the most? And then I start to really take that into account in the geometry of my design, and we literally built the home around those ideas.
Upwall (con’t): As you view the home from the exterior, it's very sculptural. It was kind of inspired almost by origami and the energy of the sculpture. And you see that from the exterior. It's still happening. It's connecting with the wilderness. It's not a static place. It's living with the place.
Jeff Hill, Builder, Co-Owner, Midway Construction: As you pull up to the house and you arrive at the house, you see this column of glass, and you can look in and see this elegant, I call it an art sculpture of a staircase that winds up through that glass element and becomes a piece of art.
Upwall: I want the stairs to be an invitation, a want to do. I want to climb those stairs. It's open. It's surrounded by natural light. I think that all contributes to the wellness experience of that space, and it's a transitory space. You're moving through it. So in this particular staircase, I thought the windows could act as a jewel box to frame these stairs and at night it's a beautiful lantern. It's very welcoming.
Gary Hill: One of the things that I love about this home would be the outdoor living space. We've got an infinity edge spa. It rolls over to overlooking this amazing view. You step back beyond that. Now all of a sudden you're kind of in this dining space with a fireplace, and you've got the barbecue. We're able to open all these doors, and now you have this indoor-outdoor living experience.
Upwall: We're blurring that line between inside and outside space. The heart of the home is that outdoor living room, and the way that works so well is because of the glass windows that wrap around it. Even if you're inside, I'm connected to what's happening outside. When you come in through the front door, your eye doesn't stop in the house. Your eye continues directly out to the mountains. And why that was able to happen is because we have extremely large pieces of glass with very thin mullions.
Lisa Massari, Brand Ambassador, Marvin Brand Experience Center: Modern is a great product for a modular system. We're able to mull a bunch of windows and doors together to create essentially a wall of glass. And so having those very narrow profiles on the frame is really giving you that direct connection to the outdoors.
Jim White, Signature Solutions Sales Manager, USI: Marvin Modern was the right choice for this home, just due to the glass size and really trying to capture the views. The other thing that makes Marvin Modern amazing is that consistency between multi-site door panel and two mulled windows coming together. The 2-7/8” gap with glass to glass just allows you to create a very consistent look and result throughout the home.
Massari: We do these black spacer bars in between the panes of glass. All of that is going to be very minimal to the eye. So that black is gonna look like a shadow. It's gonna completely disappear. So nothing is in between you and those views.
Upwall: I don't want a window company or a person to design my home for me. I want someone who can be flexible enough and to have them always approach that ask from how do we get to, yes? I found that Marvin really can hit those marks for me.
In a home with this much glass, the glass needs to be able to perform.”
Jim White
Signature Solutions Sales Manager, USI
Gary Hill: The Park City area has more freeze thaw conditions throughout the winter season than most places in the continental U.S. If you don't have the proper thermal break, you will actually be able to stand next to that and feel that cold transfer.
White: When Marvin came up with Modern, with the High-Density Fiberglass that they've created, they've been able to build just a very consistent look throughout the home and have energy performance as well, which the condensation resistance is way higher on a Marvin Modern High-Density Fiberglass product. So this is a perfect fit for our mountainous environment.
Upwall: We specialize in mountain modern architecture. I think that Marvin Modern is the right choice for the majority of the homes we do, because I believe they adhere to the modern philosophy of design. It's the simplicity of it. It's the cleanness of line. It's not about yourself. It's not about the busyness and the bells and whistles, it's, it's about the silence.
That's really what we want so we can hear the music. For more on how “Pinnacle Sky” came together, including its extreme excavation and engineering, visit Taking Mountain Modern from Vision to Reality.
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