Opposites Attract at The Trestle Ridge Home

Opposites attract.

The Trestle Ridge home, one of the 21 houses featured in this fall’s Park City Area Showcase of Homes, is a study in opposites.

Unfinished barn wood paneling in a guest suite is a rugged contrast to the soft buff-colored quartzite stone flooring in the entryway. A cement tile roof is paired with a rusted corrugated metal porch and deck covers. Wood reclaimed from a trestle bridge that spanned the Great Salt Lake in the 1800s has been smoothed and burnished to a chestnut glow, used as flooring in the great room, and left rough and raw on ceilings and exterior walls.

The 7,618-square-foot Craftsman-style home overlooking Glenwild’s 12th and 13th greens is a showcase of thoughtful planning and detail by Las Vegas-based building company, Christopher Homes. Christopher Homes is building two other luxury abodes in the Park City area, but The Trestle Ridge is the first to be completed here.

And just in time. Only five days prior to the annual Showcase of Homes, The Trestle Ridge was still a construction zone. Rooms were filled with scaffolding, dust danced in the sunlight, and neither plumbing nor light fixtures had been installed. Sub-contractors worked around the clock. Completion looked months away.

While the home remained unavailable to a curious and admiring public the first weekend of the Showcase, it was ready in time for the second.
And it was worth the wait.

Glenwild’s gentle, dun-colored rolling hills, studded with stands of spruce, are the perfect backdrop for The Trestle Ridge study in opposites. The home is simultaneously a slice of the rugged West and a picture of elegance. The guest suite has the look and feel of a ranch outbuilding, corrugated metal ceiling and all, but at the same time, the home defines upscale style with elements like an exquisite hammered copper master bathtub.

“We wanted this home to be somewhat unique for the Park City market,” says Erika Geiser, Christopher Homes vice president of marketing. “The home is informal, yet it’s sophisticated.”

It feels as though the home was built over time in thoughtfully added sections. A long breezeway connects the entry to the great room. Another breezeway, serving as a foyer, connects the guest suite with a secondary living area. Yes, the guest suite appears to be an addition. “The added-on look is intentional,” says Zane Powell, Christopher Homes Park City vice president of construction. “It’s fun and innovative.”

It’s also functional. “It’s very important to have a home with private spaces and great gathering areas,” Geiser explains. “Go off to one side, and there’s the guest suite where visitors can have privacy. The great room, dining room and kitchen are all located together for a great gathering space.”

Indoor and outdoor space is maximized. The outdoors seamlessly transitions indoors through windowed galleys or breezeways that connect the three structures comprising the house. A three-sided sheltered courtyard, complete with a large fireplace, also expands the living area of the home outside.

The Trestle Ridge home’s three-quarter acre lot was sculpted to allow backyard walkouts from both the lower and main living levels. “You can get to the backyard,” Geiser says, “whether you’re walking out the basement or the main level of the house.”

Interior designer and owner of “Interiors with Oohs & Aahs,” Suzanne Geibel, decorated the home with texture, diversity, and warm, earthy colors. Large chairs upholstered in Kilim rugs command the entryway. While the home will sleep 14, one doesn’t get the feeling of cavernous, open space. “I grew up in a log home,” Geibel says. “I wanted every area of this home to feel cozy.”

The home commands a hefty price tag of $4.3 million. Buy it fully furnished and add $275,000 to the package. The art, including large bronzes, magnificent Western oils and whimsical newspaper art can be individually negotiated. But who’s counting?

The Park City Homebuilders Association has staged the Park City Area Showcase of Homes since 1992. Each year, a collection of 20 homes built by Association members is presented to the public for three weekends in late summer. A portion of the 2005 ticket sales is going to Habitat for Humanity of Summit and Wasatch Counties. Habitat for Humanity builds low-income housing and is a member of the Homebuilders Association.

Inclusion in the Showcase can be a boon to both the builder and the owner of the home, says Kasey Ring, executive director of the Park City Homebuilders Association. It’s good advertising for the luxury home builder. “They’ll get two or three build jobs a year off the Showcase.” And an owner who agrees to have a home in the Showcase may get pricing advantages from contractors, designers, artists or suppliers because the home then serves as an advertisement for workmanship. “Various companies show off the latest services and products in the homes. There can be a benefit of 40 to 50 percent off the cost of someone’s home by having it in the Showcase,” Ring says. And for builders new to the area, like Christopher Homes, “It’s a great real estate marketing venture to have thousands of people walk through your open house,” Ring says.

Crowds trod through The Trestle Ridge wearing little blue booties. The booties muffle the footsteps, but not the comments of admiration for the craftsmanship and the concept of the house.

More than one visitor is heard to comment that The Trestle Ridge is a show favorite. And there is no opposition.

Ann Johnson has called Park City home for 10 years. She is the producer of Park City Marketplace at KPCW radio, the area National Public Radio affiliate, and has written for daily newspapers in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Salt Lake City.