For designers, working with family can go one of two ways: It can either bring you closer together, or exacerbate existing tensions. Luckily, for Portland, Oregon–based Jason Stamp and Lara White, partners at Workaday Design, a renovation project for Jason’s brother Taylor and his wife, Averi, had the former effect. “There were definitely challenges,” says Stamp of the process, which involved renovating a home for the couple and their two kids in Colorado Springs. “But we are not only family, we are also great friends. It made it easier to be frank and have those harder conversations.”

Taylor and Averi had been planning to move out of their 1925 craftsman for a long time. “We had talked with them over the years about renovating a new place, and when they finally found the right house, they asked us to help them overhaul it,” says Stamp about the low-slung, 1960s rambler that Taylor and Averi ultimately landed on. So began the family’s journey to transform the dark, compartmentalized residence into an open and daylit dream home.

Before: Exterior

One of the couple’s main goals for the renovation was to capture views of nearby Pike’s Peak, the most prominent mountain on the horizon. “Taylor and Averi had been obsessing over getting this view for as long as they’ve lived together in Colorado Springs,” recalls White. “When they bought this new house, there were no views, so opening it up became a major focal point of the renovation.”

After: Exterior

Location: 21839 Saddle Peak Road, Topanga, California

Price: $2,375,000

Year Built: 1994

Architect: Ed Niles

 Footprint: 2,529 square feet (2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths)

Lot Size: 1.65 Acres

From the Agent: “Secluded in the Santa Monica Mountains, this exquisite modern home offers breathtaking ocean, city, and mountain views that stretch from the Santa Monica Bay to downtown L.A. and the San Fernando Valley. Designed by acclaimed architect Ed Niles, this two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath residence blends luxury with nature while offering unparalleled privacy. The home is built with a combination of glass, metal, block, and stucco walls, and every room has panoramic views. The home sits on 1.6 acres, offering an idyllic blend of privacy and natural beauty. The open-concept kitchen and living area leads to dining and gathering areas, and the spaces open to a large tiled patio. The soaring over-nine-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling glass walls flood the space with natural light while framing the incredible views. On clear nights you can see the lights of the Ferris Wheel on Santa Monica Pier, and snow-capped mountains in the winter. Incredible views can be seen from the sunken tub, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass.”

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Project Details:

Location: West Seattle, Washington

Architect: SHED Architecture & Design / @shedarchitecture

Footprint: 2,714 square feet

Structural Engineer: Todd Perbix

Photographer: Rafael Soldi Photography / @rafaelsoldiphotography

From the Architect: “Designed for a couple who lived in Switzerland for 15 years, the West Seattle Chalet is inspired by the jagged peaks of the Swiss Alps. The interior is both warm and minimal, with large windows framing views of the surrounding garden and the Olympic Mountains. Clad entirely in wood, it is a contemporary chalet-style home in the Pacific Northwest.

“Located in West Seattle, the house sits in a quiet, tight-knit residential enclave with western views of the Puget Sound. The existing structure was demolished save for its foundation.

“The owners’ love for their location and community was a major factor in their decision to remain on the property. Their vision for the new house included street-facing elements designed to encourage interaction with neighbors and private living spaces at the back of the house to provide garden views and backyard access. The upper level was designed to function as a primary suite with a sitting area and access to a deck with views of the Olympic Mountains.

“The shed roof facing the street was inspired by the Swiss Alps. It responds to the scale of the neighborhood, sheltering a front porch that encourages social interaction. The upper shed roof, facing south, conceals a private deck.

“The three-level home’s main level features an entry and office facing the street, with living, kitchen, and dining areas facing east. The east-facing rooms provide garden views from large window seats and easy access to the backyard and north patio for summer dining and outdoor activities. The lower level contains a guest suite, a bathroom with a sauna, laundry, utilities, and storage. The entire house was lifted to create eight-foot basement ceilings. The upper level has a primary suite and a west-facing upper living room that opens onto a private deck with Olympic Mountain views. The home has wood siding and a metal roof, reminiscent of Swiss barns and mountain structures, and elemental materials are used throughout to create a minimalist palette.”

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

Barichara has been called Colombia’s most beautiful town, with its rural, serene setting, stone streets, and unique building traditions that make it feel “suspended in time, resisting the invasion of modernity,” as Gabriel García Márquez described in Love in the Time of Cholera. The town has changed little since the 18th century, with a construction industry relying on traditional methods. Artisans handcraft bricks and tiles, placing them one by one into a furnace, the same way their ancestors once did.

This commitment to Colombo-Colonial architecture, a style characterized by rammed earth walls, stone masonry, and tile roofs, in rural Barichara and the surrounding areas “has an inherent beauty, yet is often restrictive as a method of contemporary spatial experimentation in extreme topographies,” says architect Alejandro Saldarriaga, founding principal of Alsar-Atelier.

Saldarriaga, who formed his practice during the pandemic, recently designed a country home in the remote town. “The closest airport is a three-hour drive,” he says. And while it’s a trek for tourists, its recognition as a heritage site has attracted people both to visit and build homes.

For this project, a 2,600-square-foot home that reinterprets the Colombo-Colonial vernacular, he was challenged to work with a sloping site with extreme topography. The design separates private and public zones while offering a sense of movement and open vantage points. The proposal doesn’t “fight against the terrain but is placed on different levels, distributed from the highest topography to the more public zones,” he says. Furthermore, it was done on a budget and came in at under $100,000.