As cotton clouds drift across the cerulean sky, the magic of the Pinnacle Sky residence is revealed: The property perches eye-level with the surrounding snowcapped mountains. “As we say in Utah, you can either live in the postcard, or you can look at the postcard,” says home builder Gary Hill. On this early May evening, AD invited an intimate guest list of 25 Salt Lake City-area designers, architects, and builders to mix, mingle, and enjoy the view, made possible by the Modern collection of windows and doors by Marvin.
“I learned a long time ago that the best thing you can do to bring a view in is to get out of its way,” says architect Michael Upwall, who opted for the fine-lined, expansive glass profiles throughout the Park City home. “Your eye will stop at the first thing it sees.” Indeed, as guests entered the mountainside dwelling, the unobstructed horizon was the first of several marvelous moments in what Upwall describes as “a series of experiences” informing the home’s architecture.
The same could be said of the evening itself. Following a tour of the home, invited guests—Charles Ochello Jr. of Vitruvius Built, Marianne Brown of W Design Collective, and Matt Swindel of Imbue Design among them—conversed over heirloom tomato galettes, braised pork belly, and sips of lavender honey mocktails. The walls of Marvin Modern Multi-Slide doors leading to the cantilevered terrace were retracted, encouraging visitors to savor the indoor-outdoor lifestyle that served as the impetus for the home. Before sunfall, attendees gathered in front of the living room’s hewn-limestone fireplace as Upwall, Hill, and Jim White, sales manager at USI All Purpose Windows and Doors, took their seats for a panel discussion led by AD PRO senior editor Mel Studach.
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The dialogue began at day one, when the property was simply a plot of land and a client’s vision. “The lionshare of our clientele is from out of state, and they’re coming here for a lifestyle built around outdoor experience,” shares Hill. “One of the things we’re trying to achieve is: How do we make that outdoor space more liveable?” Without compromising on the design, of course. Upwall, who is known for creating residences that are authentic to their natural surroundings, drafted the covered outdoor space as the nucleus of the home, smartly devising entrances from both public and private spaces with Marvin Modern Sliding doors. The transition between settings is nearly seamless thanks to the Marvin line’s low-profile threshold, which allows for a clean progression between indoor and outdoor materials. “When you make that transition easy and seamless, it gives us a lot of flexibility on the builder side,” says Hill. “That—in addition to how it seals and functions—has been the money shot for us.”
Earning the approval of a Utah-based builder has weight: The state ranks among the top freeze-thaw rates in the country, making it a front line for thermal performance testing. “We have such a harsh climate—we go from really hot to really cold and everywhere in between,” says White. “This high-density fiberglass used to create the Marvin Modern product doesn’t contract and expand like other building materials.” The panelists also credited the fiberglass exterior frame for contributing to the line’s weather-seal tightness, narrow-frame profile, and lightweight operation, particularly on the sliding doors. As White puts it: “Homes have been very happy with these windows and doors.”
