Storm Mountain Ranch - Steamboat Springs, CO
The winner of the Governor's Award for Outstanding Efforts in Smart Growth and Development, as well as a 2007 Gold Nugget Award winner for sustainable design, Storm Mountain Ranch has become known as the quintessential ranch stewardship project and has been studied constantly for its design and development strategies by the Urban Land Institute. While Robert E. Fitzgerald was the architect and oversaw the construction of all of the vertical development on the ranch prior to the building of individual homes, he is most proud of the firm establishment of a sustainability protocol for ranch preservation which has become an absolute standard in "the industry".
Fitzgerald was somewhat of a novice in the genre at the time the Temple brothers (veterans of the Olympic ski team and life-long residents of Steamboat Springs) approached him to help to come up with a strategy where-by 90% of the working ranch would be preserved in perpetuity, but also where 14 lucky families could reside in an environmentally friendly resort-like setting. The buildings, gate and land are all of the prototypical western mountain ranch style, brimming with light and luxury, while respectful of their context and appearing to have sprung from the landscape many years ago. This ranch project, the predecessor for Marabou, Elk Creek and many others in the NAKA Designs, LLC portfolio, is still being discussed in magazines, at ULI conferences and at the side walk cafes of many a mountain town.
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The winner of the Governor's Award for Outstanding Efforts in Smart Growth and Development, as well as a 2007 Gold Nugget Award winner for sustainable design, Storm Mountain Ranch has become known as the quintessential ranch stewardship project and has been studied constantly for its design and development strategies by the Urban Land Institute. While Robert E. Fitzgerald was the architect and oversaw the construction of all of the vertical development on the ranch prior to the building of individual homes, he is most proud of the firm establishment of a sustainability protocol for ranch preservation which has become an absolute standard in "the industry".
Fitzgerald was somewhat of a novice in the genre at the time the Temple brothers (veterans of the Olympic ski team and life-long residents of Steamboat Springs) approached him to help to come up with a strategy where-by 90% of the working ranch would be preserved in perpetuity, but also where 14 lucky families could reside in an environmentally friendly resort-like setting. The buildings, gate and land are all of the prototypical western mountain ranch style, brimming with light and luxury, while respectful of their context and appearing to have sprung from the landscape many years ago. This ranch project, the predecessor for Marabou, Elk Creek and many others in the NAKA Designs, LLC portfolio, is still being discussed in magazines, at ULI conferences and at the side walk cafes of many a mountain town.
