It was a pretty fall day when designer Lori Paranjape first toured the property her clients had purchased on Blackberry Mountain, leaves crunching beneath her feet. The site was steep, and she carefully made her way to a platform positioned to demonstrate the views from the yet-to-be-constructed abode. As Paranjape climbed onto the deck with the owners, Elizabeth and Brad Allen, and architect Keith Summerour, they were met with a breathtaking panorama of mountain and valley.
At that moment, the structure’s concept was born. “We stood there looking at the view,” the designer recalls, “and we asked ourselves: ‘If this is what you’ll see from the front door, could we put the staircase there—and line it entirely with glass?’ You could see Keith process that, and the house began to take shape for him right then.” Elizabeth chimed in, mentioning Brad’s need for a small office and their desire for an attached guesthouse—spaces Summerour sketched on a notepad at a restaurant immediately following the site visit. “By the time we finished lunch, he had all the floors and elevations drawn and the topography correct,” Paranjape remembers. “There were very few adjustments after that.”