When Erik and Meg Roach decided to build their new home, they set their sites on the mountains around Park City. They envisioned a dynamic home where they could surround themselves with bold design, natural beauty and visiting children and grandchildren. “We wanted a home that is modern, warm, stylish, welcoming and a place for family and fun,” Meg says.
While Erik favored a contemporary, clean-lined style, Meg preferred something more transitional. They agreed they didn’t want a cold, austere design that placed look-at-me architecture before comfort, nor did they desire anything ornate or cluttered. This seems like a challenging needle to thread style-wise, but the team at Ezra Lee Design + Build (ELD+B) was up to the task. The Roaches admired the firm’s innovative designs and concept-to-completion approach to creating unique homes, so they enlisted them to design and build theirs.
The two-story house, which sits hillside in the gated Promontory community, is neither a sleek glass box nor an overworked mix of architectural tricks. Instead, the ELD+B team created a clean-lined dwelling defined by simple yet powerful forms, including a sculpture-like extension of the front’s porte cochère and a simple massing that defines the back of the dwelling as it steps down and opens to the sloped site. “It’s a mountain modern home with a contemporary, industrial twist,” explains Landon Taylor, head of design. To link the dynamic architecture to its rugged site, the team clad the exterior with natural materials including cedar siding, Oklahoma blue stone veneers and black-plated zinc. It also integrated fiberglass-reinforced panels that resemble enormous slabs of cast limestone.
Once inside the broad steel front door, visitors can look from the light-filled entry through the expansive great room and floor-to-ceiling windows to broad decks and patios overlooking the rugged mountain landscape. The views stretch for days. Natural materials—many repeated from the exterior to foster a cohesive design—temper the interior’s modern architecture. Ranging from white oak floors and walnut cabinetry to cedar-detailed ceilings and raw steel accents, organic elements deliver “a warm, cozy vibe derived from the earth,” explains principal Ezra Lee.
With striking results, the team anchored the great room with a towering fireplace faced in steel panels and filled the soaring ceiling’s tray detail with lightly stained cedar. Taylor repeated the steel elsewhere, including the entry’s ceiling cloud and the kitchen’s range hood. “It’s a nice gradation of material,” he says. The designer delivered large scale and memorable lighting to the great room by grouping three organically shaped pendants above the main sitting area. “These allowed me to introduce a gold finish to the home,” says Taylor, who also included polished nickel, black, chrome, bronze and satin brass in his mix of finishes. “These contribute to the decor’s collected design.” Masterfully grouped paintings and vignettes created from Meg’s treasured art collection do the same. “Their placement is more contemporary and the pieces are more traditional,” he says. “This helps bridge the interior’s contrasting styles.”
The yin and yang of modern and traditional created throughout the main level suits both Erik and Meg. On the kitchen backsplash, for example, simple hi-gloss tile is set in a classic herringbone pattern. In the powder room, an organically shaped vessel sink poses against a backdrop of timeless linen wallpaper, and inside the master suite, a dramatically oversized, round pendant light hangs above a bed layered in a mix of softly patterned bedding. “Across the board, I focused on the clean lines for him and the warm, rich materials for her,” Taylor says.
The lower level is decidedly more functional and modern, Lee explains. “Erik won here,” he says with a laugh. “It’s very open, clean-lined and ideal for entertaining.” Here, an open-concept theater and golf simulator share space with a private music theater, bar and game room. A couple of guest suites and a bunk room complete the mix. “We dedicated the lower level to fun and family times with personal interests for all ages,” Meg explains.
The action extends far into the landscape, courtesy of impressively large patios accessed from the lower level. “We pushed the outdoor living area to the limit,” Lee explains. A fireplace anchors a covered, all-season living space. Nearby, a large hot tub and open lounge areas furnish a broad sundeck. Exterior stairs lead to a main-level deck above, replete with a spacious dining area and streamlined seating that surrounds raised fire boxes. “They have amazing views and dramatically extend the home’s indoor living and entertaining spaces,” Taylor explains.
“We love living in the home,” Meg says. “It functions beautifully in every capacity.” What’s more, it satisfies her craving for transitional style and warmth while fulfilling Erik’s desire for clean-lined, modern design. “It represents a statement of our aesthetics, beliefs and a desire to create something new and lasting,” Erik says. Admittedly, it’s a lot to expect from a home, but this talented team delivered the goods.
Read more house tours here.
Photographer: Meagan Larsen
Architect: Ezra Lee—project lead
Contractor: Derek Andersen—project lead; Ezra Lee Design + Build
Interior Design: Landon Taylor—project lead; Ezra Lee Design + Build
Landscape Design: Ezra Lee Design+Build, Alpine
Custom Cabinets: Marwood Design, West Jordan
French White Oak Flooring: National Flooring Brokers, Orem
PentalQuartz Countertops: Bedrock Quartz, West Jordan
Ceramic and Porcelain Tile: Set in Stone Tile & Design, Orem, 801-434-7510
Steel Railing and Beams: Brad Roberts Fabrication, Pleasant Grove, 801-763-8276
Wolf and Sub-Zero Appliances, Mountainland Design, SLC
Roller Screen Shades: Allied Furnishings, Bountiful
