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05/01/2006
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| [Vacation Life] |
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| A sun valley residence marries design motifs from around the globe. |
| text by: |
Elizabeth Exline |
| photos by: |
Tim Brown |
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You might expect a former communications and technology CEO to build a home that
boasts a slick, high-tech and contemporary
design.
And you
might
anticipate that
someone building a
vacation home in Sun
Valley would
create a deliberately
humble retreat, in harmony
with
its rustic
surroundings. But Larry Wangberg is
not
one to
conform to expectations.
His European
country–style mountain
dwelling
defies both stereotypes.
It is at once worldly and
warm,
adventurous and
traditional—and this,
according
to Wangberg’s
interior designer Thomas Beeton,
is precisely
what a
home
ought to be. "I don’t make lifestyles for people.
They
have
plenty of lifestyle, especially someone as
diverse as Larry," Beeton
says.
"My job is to
framework it and
put it into a practical and
livable
context."
Previous spread, left: The
home’s motor court
features radiant heating and tumbled
pavers. "Almost
every man never has enough
garage
space, and
this was an opportunity to
have enough
garage
space," Wangberg
says. Bottom: The
13,000-square-foot
home’s
exterior is made of
rough-textured,
mottled stucco, timbers
and
Chief Joseph stone
from Montana. (Click images to
enlarge)
In Wangberg’s case, that
context
is one
that
infuses casual,
mountain
living with
Gallic aesthetics.
Wangberg
refined his
love affair with
all things European
during his frequent
stays at
Relais & Châteaux
properties,
destinations he would
photograph for fun. "As a photographer,
I’m
more mindful of my
surroundings and the
architecture and the
decorating of
buildings I’m
staying at—or have an opportunity
to
see," Wangberg
explains.
Thanks,
perhaps, to
his photographer’s
eye,
Wangberg
understood that
size really does matter when building a
home.
As a
result, his
was built on a scale that holds its own among
the surrounding peaks.
Commanding a 15-acre lot with
360-degree
mountain views, the
house occupies a
natural, elevated bench and
features 500 tons
of
Chief Joseph stone from
Montana, 150 timber beams
and high-
volume ceilings. A good guide to scale for
the house are the
living room walls, which are 25
feet high.
Left: The kitchen floor of this
Sun Valley home is
French terra cotta, but the tiles
were set
upside
down for a more rustic look. Far left, the breakfast room features a 19th-century Tibetan chest. Bottom left, the French limestone fireplace in the dining room was carved by a Norman family that has worked in masonry for generations. (Click
images to
enlarge)
But
Wangberg’s
home did not just respond to the
landscape; it
fostered a
relationship with it.
Rambling along the bench, the
house is flanked by
two
waterfalls that empty into
a trout
pond.
Architect Jim
Ruscitto,
principal of Ruscitto/Latham/Blanton
Architectura,
and Thomas Rixon,
project architect,
then
designed a
garden-level
basement with 10-foot
ceilings, 8-foot
French doors, terraces and plenty of
windows, so that
even the
lowest level of the house
converses with nature. The
architects also used glass
liberally throughout the
entire
house. They
wrapped
the stairwell in windows
and incorporated
windows in
the
8-foot-wide hallways so
that, as the rooms
connect to each other, the
whole
house relates to the
outdoors
in one fluid movement.
Right: An artful vignette occupies the entrance hall of
the home. Bottom: "The hand-blocked quality of the Bennison linen drapes in the dining
room helps increase the cozy-elegance factor," says Beeton.
Color serves
to unite each space
within the greater
tableau of its setting:
From the lilac
tones in the
hills outside the master
suite (which
inspired
the color of that room’s
walls), to the main rooms,
where
ivory
plaster is brushed with gold and
recalls
Sun Valley’s
afternoon light. "If
you stripped everything out
of
the
building, it would feel a bit organic," says
Beeton, "as if it
kind of grew up from the materials
around
it." Beeton and his
project
manager,
Julianne Gavino,
infused those gentle hues
with vibrant jewel
tones
via furnishings and accessories.
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