ALIGNED TO THE VIEW

The Berry Residence is under construction on the Breckenridge Golf Course. It has great views of Breckenridge Ski Area and Ten Mile Range. This custom vacation home will have approximately 6,000 s.f. of floor area with four bedrooms and six baths. There will also be bunks in the Family Room. There will the three garage spaces and generous covered and open decks to take advantage of the view.

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Elk Point project finished and sold

While most people think of more traditional mountain themes for their vacation homes, there’s a growing interest in a cleaner more contemporary aesthetic. This works very well with large of expanses of glass that show the great views and fewer details to distract from the natural beauty that surrounds. This recently completed project in Breckenridge demonstrates this concept very well. The home feels very much like a mountain home, but with much more contemporary lines, simple detailing and fantastic indoor-outdoor relationship.

This home was recently completed and sold. It sits on an incredible site in Breckenridge, Colorado with fantastic views of Breckenridge Ski Resort and the Ten Mile Range. It’s called Elk Point because of the frequent visits by a local elk heard.

You can see more photos on my website http://www.MichaelGallagher.com

 

Peak 8 Penthouse recieves more publicity

My project near the Breckenridge Ski Resort has been featured in Denver Life Magazine in October. Here’s the link if you’d like to see the article: http://denverlifemagazine.com/2014/10/room-with-a-view/

Thanks to the homeowners for their help. Great clients make great projects possible!

Elk Point sweeps the Summit County Parade of Homes awards

Thanks to  the Summit County Parade of Homes for awarding five out of the seven available awards to the home I designed. Thanks to the builder Double Diamond Property and Construction and the homeowner for making this possible. If you’d like to see this contemporary mountain home, the Parade continues Sunday September 21st as well as Saturday and Sunday September 26th and 27th. Admission proceeds benefit the Summit Foundation.

Summit County Parade of Homes entry

Once again, one of my designs has been selected for the Summit County Parade of Homes tour September 20 & 21 and 27 & 28 in Summit County Colorado. Please stop by and visit. Proceeds of the Parade benefit the Summit Foundation.

The home is a more contemporary home than what you usually see in this area. It has a very refreshing aesthetic while still clearly within the mountain vernacular.

Work is just finishing up so the home will be ready for the Parade.

The Master Bedroom flows right out to an “outdoor room” with its own fireplace and great views.

 

Michael F Gallagher, Architect      Breckenridge, Colorado          http://www.MichaelGallagher.com

 

New environmentally friendly home completed

A new home I designed has recently been completed near Breckenridge, Colorado with an emphasis on low environmental impact. Here are some of the features that reduce this homes impact on our natural resources:

Most importantly, the home is not huge. Within 2002 square feet of living area there are three bedrooms and three baths. There is also a very comfortable great room with the living, dining and kitchen areas open to each other and to the sun and views to the south. The home features a generous mud room with laundry and dog wash. In addition to that, there is a large two-car garage with a finished attic for hobbies and storage. The building is large enough for this family to be comfortable without consuming unnecessary energy and building materials.

The home has great passive solar characteristics with plenty of south-facing windows and stained concrete floors to absorb and store the sun’s heat. The concrete floors serve  as both structural and finish components reducing the amount of resources consumed in the building process.

The home is very well insulated and sealed with a combination of spray foam and fiberglass insulation.

Passive solar heat is supplemented by a high-efficiency gas boiler heating radiant floor slabs.

To offset the electrical loads, there is a 6.0 KW array of photovoltaic (PV) solar collectors. These are tied into the utility grid so that excess energy is sold back to the local utility company.

A large portion of the lot has been left in a natural state so that the owners can enjoy watching all the wildlife that still life on the property.

 

Michael F Gallagher, Architect       Breckenridge, Colorado         http://www.MichaelGallagher.com

 

Details in The Bennett Residence

Now that the Bennett Residence is finished, I’d like to show you some of my favorite details.

The first detail is the HISTORIC PHOTO MURALS on the walls of the Bowling Alley.

Breckenridge, Colorado started out as a mining town and this custom vacation home, overlooking Breckenridge Ski Area, actually sits over some abandoned mine shafts. The owners wished to celebrate this heritage in the lower level game area of the home. This part of the home has trim and detailing that reflects a more rustic feel with general references to mining. In the Bowling Alley I suggested that we use large photo murals to create interest on the large wall expanses. We chose these photos because the owner was especially interested in the dredge boats that had worked the Blue and Swan Rivers. This was a  rather unique approach to extracting gold and the boats were interesting technology. They destroyed the natural riverbed, but in more recent times the Town of Breckenridge has restored the Blue River where it passes through town.

Details: Roofing transition

The Bennett Residence, nearing completion in Breckenridge, Colorado, has a two-pitch roof inspired by Adirondack tradition. The roofing material also changes at this pitch change. The eaves have standing-seam copper roofing to better deal with the icy conditions at this high altitude  (9,820 feet above sea level). The main roof is a slate-like composite material. This type of roofing transition is not uncommon, but the flashing usually comes from under the upper roofing material and then has to slope “up” (relatively) to get over the standing seams. This creates a “hump” that interferes with snow and water shedding. In this case I detailed the roof deck with an offset so that the flashing can lay flat over the standing seams. The effect is a much cleaner look and more effective flashing.

This large custom vacation home near the Breckenridge Ski Resort required many special details with this level of thoughtfulness. The Rocky Mountains of Colorado present a wonderful playground but also a very demanding climate.

Michael F Gallagher, Architect

Update on Bennett Residence

Hello,

It has been a while since I’ve shown many photos of the Bennett Residence. This custom winter vacation home near the Breckenridge Ski Area has been in design & construction for several years. The home is rather large (15,200 s.f.) and quite complex. It features a very sophisticated home control and automation system, a geothermal heating system, two-lane bowling alley and many more very unique features. Here is a slide show showing it’s current state of completion.

Entry

Motor Court

Grand fireplace

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Bowling alley

Bar

Fireplace lounge

Master Balcony

Great Room

Service Entry

Aproach view

Guest Suite

Boy’s Bedroom

Boy’s Bath

Boy’s Bedroom

Boys Hall

Boy’s Patio

North Wing, South Wing beyond

Motor Court from Boy’s bay window

Library

Library