Case study · Old Town · Park City
A 5,400 sq ft tear-down + rebuild on a 1.2-acre Old Town parcel. The original 1920s heritage facade was stabilized, raised, and re-set on a fully-modern interior reorganized around a central kitchen and a long covered porch.
The build
The Aspen House is one of Alder & Stone's most architecturally delicate deliveries. The Old Town parcel had been in one family since 1958, with a 1923 miner's cottage and a 1971 lean-to addition that the new owners — a couple relocating from the Bay Area — bought specifically because they wanted to keep the heritage facade and the mature aspen grove along the rear lot line. Park City's historic-character district review board agreed in principle, but only on condition that the facade was retained intact through demolition and rebuild.
Construction superintendent Marisol Vega ran a six-month structural-stabilization phase before any demolition began. We sleeve-braced the heritage facade, lifted it 14 inches off the original foundation onto a steel-girder cradle, demolished the failing 1971 addition, replaced the original foundation with a full poured walkout, and re-set the heritage facade onto its new bearing. The neighbors photographed the lift-and-set day. The board's preservation officer attended.
The rebuilt interior is fully modern: an open kitchen-living-dining spine running the depth of the home, a primary suite tucked into the south wing, four secondary bedrooms over a finished walkout basement, and a 60-foot covered porch on the rear that reads as the home's social heart in summer. The accessory dwelling unit over the new three-car garage was permitted under Park City's then-new ADU code and serves as a long-term rental that defrays the property's carrying cost.
Floor plan + massing
Single-story heritage facade at the street; rebuilt two-story interior set back behind. Heritage entry corridor opens to a long kitchen-living-dining spine running north-south, with the kitchen at center and the great-room hearth at the south end. Primary suite at the south end of the upper story over the great room; four secondary bedrooms in a north-wing children's hall over the entry corridor. Finished walkout basement under the great room: family room, gym, two flex rooms. ADU: 800 sq ft one-bedroom flat over the detached three-car garage, with its own entry off the alley.
Finish-out specifications
Build timeline
We bought the house for the aspen grove and the 1923 facade. Owen was the only architect who didn't try to talk us out of either one — he sketched the lift-and-set on the back of a napkin at the first meeting, and twenty months later we're sitting on the porch in May with the original front door behind us. That facade has stood here longer than any of us; now it stands on top of a home we'll grow old in.
— R. & L. Chen, Old Town · March 2024
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