The Colorado Summit House is about simplicity and orientation. The decentralized massing of the home, broken into three distinct programmatic volumes; public, private and service, create sheltered areas from which to appreciate outdoors the natural phenomena of the site, and frame indoor views of the adjacent Sawatch, Castle Peak and Gore ranges. These volumes navigate the site topography with a series of landscaped terraces that step to meet the existing bluff-like form of the site, with natural stone cladding and planted transitions to the open sage field that surrounds.

The distributed volumes accentuate the horizontality of the natural plateau on which the house is located. The aggregate of gabled roofs emulate the clustered peaks of the surrounding mountain ranges and the historic outposts of Colorado's early settlement. While contemporary in both nature and the simplicity of its form, the house will feature natural local stone, slate roof shingles, and locally sourced spruce wood siding, providing a rustic and contextual aesthetic, and importantly, one that weathers and evolves over time.