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By William Weathersby, Jr.
Michael Theisen’s back porch in Bozeman, Montana, offers ringside seats to the spectacular. With an 800-square-foot curving deck that offers panoramic views of a valley of grasslands surrounded by snow-capped mountain ranges, the home is the perfect perch from which to view changes of weather, season, and terrain. Michael, an anesthesiologist with a practice in Seattle, built this retreat here on his family’s 100-acre range set before the Spanish Peaks and the Gallatin Mountains. Although he grew up in a modest farmhouse 200 yards away from this new home’s site, he says he “always dreamed of returning here
to build something on the higher ridge
to take in the whole view.”
Working with Don McLaughlin of Bozeman’s Place Architecture, Michael and his partner, Ron Jones, a retired school consultant, have built a house that lets the landscape take center stage. “Overlooking at least seven mountain ranges, the views from the site are beyond spectacular,” says Mc Laughlin. “The main idea with the house was to create a pavilion for the view. Michael and Ron enjoy entertaining year round, but particularly in the summer, when they can spend time outdoors.”
Clad in planks of ipe, a hardwood similar to teak, the semicircular deck sweeps the length of the two-story house’s south side. With hardly a neighbor in sight, generous windows open to the deck and landscape beyond without sacrificing privacy. The low, curved wall that defines the outdoor “living room” provides a feeling of safety and insulation from the stark landscape.
The house is situated just off a county road, so the northern, street-facing facade has a more discreet presence. A pathway leads to a covered entry porch that creates an arrival transition from land to house. Clad in stucco matched to the golden color of the grasslands, with stone details and tapered columns of Parallam (a composite made of recycled woods), the 2,680-square-foot house conveys a contemporary yet vernacular style. “This house incorporates building concepts that I like to call ideas for the New West,” McLaughlin says. “We used sustainable materials, sunscreens, and architectural forms that aren’t overtly Western. Too many new homes here still go for a rusticated look—huge boulder fireplaces or split-log beams—that doesn’t speak to the way we live today.”
Inside, a slate entry leads into an open interior landscape composed of dining room, living room, and kitchen. The rooms form a public area for entertaining, with easy access to the outdoor deck. Stained South American walnut floors and custom maple cabinetry visually link the spaces together. A low wall separating the dining and living areas is lined with cabinets for linen, tableware, and wine storage. The cabinets also function as sideboards for serving buffet meals. Yellow walls and a plaster-clad fireplace warm the rooms and soften the modern edge, while classic modern furnishings with solid-color upholstery don’t compete with the vistas.
While it adds a warm ambience to
the living and dining area, the pitched, stained wood ceiling also acts as an acoustical intervention. Ash veneer plywood slats set three-eighths of an inch apart are backed by a black fiberglass material that absorbs sound. As Ron points out, “When we have a party, friends are always amazed that it never reaches that point where the crowd is drowning out your conversation.”
Natural light is prized here, even in the core areas of the house with fewer windows. To brighten the kitchen, a wall dividing it from the stairwell to the lower level is clad with translucent shoji-like screens. A center panel is left clear, so people in the kitchen can look down the hallway toward an interior fountain or see who is arriving at the door.
On the lower level, the master suite and a guest room form one end of the L-shaped floor plan, with laundry, storage, and mechanical rooms creating the support zone in the other leg. A tile-clad fireplace provides graphic punch to the otherwise simply furnished master bedroom, which opens onto a west-facing deck. The master bath features a divider constructed of glass tiles to allow natural light to flow through.
Though comfortable and cozy, the lower-level bedrooms nevertheless play a supporting role to the main floor’s open, airy interiors. Like the farmhouse rooms Michael grew up in, this house’s bedrooms are quiet places to return to after a day spent embracing the outdoors. Near his boyhood home on a property he knows like the back of his hand, Michael has created a home that’s harmonious with the site, in tune with nature, and reflective of his life in Montana.
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