Rick Joy, the under-the-radar architect of the American West, is the design visionary behind Lone Mountain Ranch, a slice of modernism in the New Mexico desert. Owners Robert and Mary Lloyd Estrin spent time in Japan, researching the Wagyu cattle business, before engaging Joy to build their residence in Golden, New Mexico, the centerpiece of their Lone Mountain Wagyu Cattle Company. Not surprisingly, the design has Japanese overtones; the exterior is clad in charred shou-sugi-ban cedar, which makes the structure fire resistant, and the interiors have a Zen-like calm.
Photography by Peter Ogilvie via Architectural Record.
Above: The house was designed to nestle into a desert landscape of sagebrush and piñon trees. Landscape architect Michael Boucher's design is so discreet that the grounds seem unlandscaped.
Above: Walls of windows frame views of the desert.
Above: "The project demonstrates a creative sensitivity to the site, climate, vegetation, and quality of light," according to David Heymann, AIA, Austin, a member of the panel that awarded the project the 2013 Harnar Award.
Above: Robert Estrin, who describes himself as a "weekend astronomer," requested a roof terrace for star gazing.
Above: The walled roof deck is discreetly recessed and is not visible from the ground.
Above: The galvanized standing-seam roof is "twisted to make two low points on diagonally opposing corners," Joy says in the Santa Fe New Mexican. "The gutter system directs water from these low points into two cisterns, one at either end of the structure."
Above: The site is surrounded by mountain ranges and views include Lone Mountain and the pine forests of the Ortiz Mountains.
Above: The site plan.
For more desert landscapes, see Haute Bohemia: Korakia Pensione in the California Desert.