The Deer Crest Ski Resort - Deer Valley, UT
In preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Robert Fitzgerald was asked to put together a master plan and a schematic design for what was essentially to become an addition to the Snow Park Day Lodge near Park City. The project was to include a 400-room hotel and several floors of luxury condominium development. The site for the hotel was virtually inaccessible from the parking entrance and arrival location for the lodge which resulted in much of the planning exercise being consumed by the research as to how one might ascend the slope to the east of the primary ski terrain. A custom, half-mile funicular was ultimately settled upon, which would take guests from a primary arrival building down low and have them ascend to a grand entrance hall with the inclined elevator as their vehicle. The basic style of the place was to be National Parks log and timber (irreverently labeled later as "Parkitecture" by our friend Mr. Jim Thompson). The spaces were to be mountain rustic, but grand. The rooms were to be cozy and simple, but also luxurious.
Fitzgerald and his team devised a building which in section was unique and which, due to the terrain, was to be relatively complex; yet the layout of the lodge would have been simple for the guest to enjoy and memorable for both its sequence of arrival and the subsequent vacation experience. Unfortunately, the developer failed to exercise his option on the purchase of the land and others ended up building the Black Diamond Lodge at the lower end of the property, a condominium project easily accessible from the Snow Park Day Lodge at the base of the Olympic ski terrain.
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In preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Robert Fitzgerald was asked to put together a master plan and a schematic design for what was essentially to become an addition to the Snow Park Day Lodge near Park City. The project was to include a 400-room hotel and several floors of luxury condominium development. The site for the hotel was virtually inaccessible from the parking entrance and arrival location for the lodge which resulted in much of the planning exercise being consumed by the research as to how one might ascend the slope to the east of the primary ski terrain. A custom, half-mile funicular was ultimately settled upon, which would take guests from a primary arrival building down low and have them ascend to a grand entrance hall with the inclined elevator as their vehicle. The basic style of the place was to be National Parks log and timber (irreverently labeled later as "Parkitecture" by our friend Mr. Jim Thompson). The spaces were to be mountain rustic, but grand. The rooms were to be cozy and simple, but also luxurious.
Fitzgerald and his team devised a building which in section was unique and which, due to the terrain, was to be relatively complex; yet the layout of the lodge would have been simple for the guest to enjoy and memorable for both its sequence of arrival and the subsequent vacation experience. Unfortunately, the developer failed to exercise his option on the purchase of the land and others ended up building the Black Diamond Lodge at the lower end of the property, a condominium project easily accessible from the Snow Park Day Lodge at the base of the Olympic ski terrain.
