Honor Project name: Jackson Hole Workforce Housing
Project overview: In order to address a desperate need for workforce housing in the town of Jackson, Wyoming, the design team navigated rigorous land development regulations to design the densest residential building possible on this site at the base of Snow King Mountain. By pursuing a Planned Unit Development (PUD), we were able to create 20 units of much needed housing, where a traditional project would have yielded only eight!
Connected by a single ground floor plinth, the building is curiously broken into three distinct volumes to better mimic the neighborhood scale. The distinct volumes are each accessed by a single stair core, eliminating the need for any common corridor on the upper floors. This extremely efficient circulation strategy maximizes light and air to the dwelling units while minimizing excessive common space.
The building roofs compose a figural series of flat and sloped profiles that relate to the mountains beyond. Functionally, the configuration is carefully considered for ideal orientation on the sloped portions for rooftop solar arrays, while also concentrating snow onto the flat sections of roof to prevent it from sheeting off.
Wrapped in vertical wood cladding, the exterior envelope modulates scale, transparency, and resilience. Rather than disrupt this material as it encounters the recessed balconies, a more porous version of the cladding extends to form a seamless guardrail transition. At the ground floor, careful consideration to site (eight-foot snow drifts!) is addressed with a board formed concrete base, providing durability while extending the rhythm of the cladding above.
Project location: Jackson, Wyoming
Firm name: Merge Architects, Inc.
Architect of Record: Merge Architects
Completion: 2023
Client: BaseCamp LLC
Jury comments: The choice of materials and the composition of the massing of this project is sophisticated, with great attention to roof design which also exhibits thought. The density of the project and the ways in which to make that density attractive at an economic cost stand out. The project uses nice board form concrete, reflecting the siding above, and includes nice detail of the deck guard rails. Lastly, the density of the projects works nicely and fits within the context of Jackson Hole. Overall, beautiful, thoughtful, well-executed work to fill a gap in the affordability of housing.
Images/Photographer(s): Krafty Photos Developer: BaseCamp LLC General Contractor: New West Building Company Civil Engineer: Nelson Engineering Structural: Nelson Engineering Mechanical: Energy-1, LLC Electrical: Energy-1, LLC Plumbing: Energy-1, LLC Landscaping: Agrostis, Inc.
