Aspen, Colorado, USA
Situated in Aspen’s historic West End neighborhood, the Aspen – West End residence renovated by RO | ROCKETT DESIGN offers a simple classic Victorian exterior in the front, coupled with a progressive modern addition of light wood and milky glass.
This Victorian house is carefully restored to its original form after years of non-historic additions and renovations.
The project has recently been awarded a 2023 American Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The Victorian is stabilized and reinforced, and linked to a contemporary addition and lower-level basement. Inside the Victorian, the original compartmentalized layout is opened to dynamic, multi-story volumes, and free-flowing circulation.
Unified by these volumes, a three-story floating wood stair overlooks the lower-level rec room below.
A double-height kitchen with a wood-gabled ceiling above vertically expands the plan, filling the spaces with light, and spills out to the courtyard and addition beyond.
A modern wood and glass pavilion delicately connects to the historic Victorian’s opening to the shared courtyard.
Its milky-white glass cladding sitting atop a subdued ground-level base of light cedar vertical siding is designed to softly reflect the mountain skies and adjacent foliage above, transforming with the rise and fall of the sun and ever-changing mountain environment.
Inside, light-filled bedrooms with views of the mountains and an internal courtyard provide peaceful refuges amongst large Aspen and Cottonwood tree canopies.
Project: Aspen – West End
Architects: RO | ROCKETT DESIGN
Design Team: Zac Rockett, Jason Ro, Andrew Alexander Green
General Contractor: Koru Limited
Client: Private
Photographers: Draper White Photography
