Montana-based JLF Architects received recognition from Homestead magazine for creating houses representing the current Rocky Mountain West trend for building legacy homes. JLF revealed its decades of history designing timeless, regionally attuned houses built to last "a century or more" and the inherent challenges of such multigenerational projects.
BOZEMAN, Mont., Sept. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The desire for homes where generations can – and want to – gather wasn't the creation of Covid, "but it did amplify it," writes Homestead magazine in its summer issue, turning for insight to JLF Architects, with its reputation – with design-build partner Big-D Signature – for creating iconic, award-winning examples of these "legacy homes."
"People started thinking in more depth about changing their lifestyle and raising and gathering their families in places that are less encumbered with all the world's noise," JLF design principal Paul Bertelli tells the magazine in the article "Family Ties," adding, "They come to us looking to build homes where multiple generations can converge."
While the pandemic's "urban exodus" may have contributed to an uptick in desire for such multigenerational escapes in wide-open-spaces country, the legacy home concept is foundational to JLF, known for its nearly 50 years of intentionally creating timeless houses of weathered fieldstone and hewn timbers that feel at one with their stunning settings throughout the Mountain West and beyond.
Reclaimed barnwood, reassembled log-and-chink from an antique cabin, and contours suggesting a built-over-time approach, for instance, fit the regional farming vernacular of the spectacular valley site near Bozeman for the JLF and Dovetail/Big-D Signature project known as Montana Handcrafted, for example. But beyond beauty and sense of place, constructing homes for a future that may extend a century or more – providing a beloved haven as a family's size and make-up evolves over the decades – presents special design challenges.
From the beginning, JLF works up masterplans that include where an addition or guesthouse might be built in 15-20 years, Bertelli explains to Homestead. "We really consider the 'what-if' components," he says, considering the potential long-term need for an additional bedroom wing or guesthouse as children eventually grow up, bringing families of their own to the mix. "It's not built until it's needed, but from the beginning, we already know where it would go," he says, which allows later construction to retain an integral connection to both the landscape and the original house.
In addition to those long-range plans, legacy homes also require an additional layer of right-now, right-size planning so a house can feel comfortable and intimate for a homeowner couple on their own, yet graciously welcome extended family and friends to accommodate perhaps a 20-person gathering. One way that JLF meets that required flexibility is by shrinking bedrooms – "realizing that you're only sleeping in that room," says Bertelli – while expanding public spaces. "In terms of what those public spaces look like, it's specific to the family," he tells Homestead. "We do game rooms, exercise rooms, wine cellars, and the occasional billiard room" – even a hidden rooftop observatory as a favorite amenity of the Jackson Hole True North project, which also includes such personalized extras as an LED-lighted wine closet and a motorized window pass-through to the outdoor kitchen.
And when it comes to a house's essential workhorse areas of kitchen, dining and great room, the thoughtful flow of an open plan suits most. "We haven't done formal dining rooms in more than three houses in 15 years," says Bertelli. Instead, dining areas are open to kitchens and great rooms in what he says has become a "consistent and successful combination" that serves to bring the whole family together even as they pursue separate activities from cooking and dining to playing a board game or reading a book.
Equally important – and integrally tied to the deep connection of JLF designs to their surrounding landscape – are substantial outdoor living spaces that may include full outdoor kitchens, expansive alfresco dining, and multiple gathering areas, often with a central fire pit, and always positioned to experience the impact of the setting. For JLF's Hidden Lake project in Tennessee, for example, the architects devised a proprietary way of extending indoor-outdoor living space out into the lake itself, while areas mimicking natural rock formations support outdoor seating layered with stone steps in various settings from woods to lakeside.
About JLF Architects & Big-D Signature:
With over 45 years of experience, JLF Architects, pioneers in building houses with reclaimed antique timber and indigenous stone, continue as leaders in creating sustainable legacy houses that contrast rustic materials with the best of contemporary design. Over time, JLF's architect-led design-build approach with Big-D Signature has prevailed because of the essential union between design and construction as the team realizes vision through craft to create true one-of-a-kind homes. Based in Bozeman, Montana, with offices in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Park City, Utah, JLF applies distinctive solutions and Old-World techniques to create place-based houses closely aligned with the natural world and honoring history. Winners of Mountain Living Home of the Year and frequently featured in media including Country Home, Traditional Home and Western Art & Architecture, the JLF Architects and Big-D Signature design-build team unites passionate architects with dedicated builders to enable the collective imagination of visionary artisans working with visionary clients. For more information visit JLFArchitects.com and follow JLF on Instagram. Follow Big-D Signature at bigdsignature.com and on Instagram.
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SOURCE JLF Architects
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