This project was a collaboration with owner's who  became friends through previous projects (Bill Roach and Julie Bryant). They dreamt of creating an artist retreat out of a rural inn on a special oasis at the edge of basin and range country, and I was happy to join them.  We spent a year or so planning and designing the initial project for the significant site improvements and central commons building, caretaker's housing, and shop buildings. After construction was under way, we moved onto addressing additional buildings on site, in all constructing or rehabilitating 17 structures over the course of a busy two years. 

The shop and solar thermal array on the caretaker's building above are all part of a larger systems-level thinking that was applied to the entire site infrastructure

The commons building is the heart of the program, tucked into the central tree cluster. It saved an old building that served as the central lodge, and added onto it substantially, with a building that reaches out in all directions with different purposes. Shown here is one of many back doors, this one to the yoga room: 

The interior is cozy and solid, keeping the extremes of the weather at bay. The main fireplace here is the center of gatherings

The material pallet is simple and raw, with raw wood, metal, with textures and patterns throughout

The material pallet is simple and raw, with raw wood, metal, with textures and patterns throughout

Raw metal was heavily crafted material and adapted to many purposes

Fenceposts that had been through a wildfire were repurposed for handrail parts in many forms

The balance of natural elements with manmade and rehabilitated is thoughtful

It is not clear where new buildings start or older ones stop as they are in conversation

There are many practical considerations that were incorporated as key elements

But some are just more fun, such as a series of six light fixtures for the individual cabin entries based on the local flora. The owner's guided the initial concept, Jeem  sketched the forms, and Jesse laid out and cut them into the steel boxes:

From top left (clockwise): Sugar Pine, Black Locust, Willow, Ash, Juniper, and Russian Olive.

Late in the project, after expanding and rehabilitating the pond we also built a bridge across it with juniper decking, bending fence posts for benches at its waypoints. It is a serene place to stop and appreciate the natural world from. 

Distinctive gates using rock cairns and fences were added at the end of the project

There is a nice story about the founders of this project on the retreat website: https://playasummerlake.org/story/

We had a lot of fun working wtih them to create the spaces and objects that serve as a foundation for artistic and scientific endeavors here