Outbuilding brings flexibility to a Jackson Hole compound
Thunder Road Reaches is a multigenerational retreat modeled after the sprawling family compounds of its owners’ native Texas. Located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the home comprises three separate, complementary structures: a main house, a guesthouse, and a gear barn. Together, they illustrate how our homeowner-centered approach to custom architecture and systematized process generate beautiful results for a variety of building types.
The rugged gear barn is a soaring steel, wood, and glass structure. Although it varies in typology from the other buildings on the property, it shares their timeless materiality. The sleek, spacious outbuilding includes dedicated areas for lounging, playing games, and repairing and displaying cars, along with its own patio. It fulfills both the architect and client’s vision for this modern compound as a retreat for a network of friends and relatives.
Year-Round Uses
Separated from the main house by a walled vehicle court, the 3,100-square-foot barn provides a multifunctional space for both winter and summer activities. Throughout the year it is a destination for a more rambunctious crowd to revel by the fireplace and pool table, keeping their youthful noise at a distance from the house. When the revelry has subsided, the welcome long evenings of a well-earned retirement are spent tinkering with a favorite car beneath an open steel-raftered roof.
Large hangar doors bifold upward to allow the easy movement of vehicles and the free flow of old friends. When summer arrives, the structure takes on further dimension, revealing fly-fishing gear, kept at easy hand for an early morning cast in the shallows of Snake River.
Custom Design, Predictable Execution
The gear barn is an example of Turkel Design’s industry-leading ability to marry the benefits of off-site fabrication with premium bespoke architecture. It is the result of our interactive design process, which begins with a thorough understanding of each homeowner’s desired lifestyle. This knowledge helps shape each home to uniquely fit, and thereby improve, the lives of its occupants.
The owners of Thunder Road Reaches were drawn to our ability to deliver high-quality design alongside predictability of both process and outcome—a combination unmatched by other architects they had previously worked with or considered. By crafting the building components off site and partnering with an experienced local contractor, we overcame the key challenges of building in a location like Jackson Hole: a short construction season, structural challenges including a heavy snow load requirement, and a lack of local labor.
With its three distinct structures, Thunder Road Reaches demonstrates that prefab architecture is not limited to pre-existing designs. Instead, the predictability of a systematized process empowers us with the confidence to innovate without compromising quality.
How Do You Want to Live?
Does the home you envision include more than one structure? Are you thinking about adding a beautiful custom outbuilding to your existing property? Please contact us.
