GRAPHĒ

How They Pulled It Off: Building a Home Into a Steep Utah Mountainside

Park City firm Klima Architecture explains how a radical roof was the first step in tapping the slope’s potential.

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.

After 30 years in Phoenix, Trisha and Brian Coffman were ready to relocate. They would soon be empty nesters and wanted a mountain home that captured the grandeur of its setting. So they bought a piece of hillside land in Summit Park, an old mountain community between Park City and Salt Lake City, that was surrounded by 100-foot Douglas firs and old-growth spruce. But what made it so stunning also made it exceptionally challenging to build a home on. Located at 7,100 feet, it falls off at a roughly 45-degree angle, only has one access road, and endures winters where nine feet of snow is the norm.

Chris Price of Klima Architecture designed an alpine home that mimics the grade of a steeply sloping site. — Chris Price, founder of Klima Architecture, designed an alpine home that follows the grade of a steep site. A band of windows runs down one side, enhancing the stretching effect.
Photo by Austin Lamoreaux

So how do you build a house on the side of a mountain? That was the question Trisha and Brian posed to Chris Price, founder of Klima Architecture, a Park City architecture, interiors, and landscape practice. Price has designed nine homes in Summit Park, including his own, and has lived there since 2009. "It’s kind of like the redheaded stepchild neighborhood," says Price, for its limited access and difficult terrain. But there also weren’t any covenants, conditions, or restrictions, and no HOA, unlike other nearby areas where, Price says, the rules can be particularly restrictive of style and materials. "Having less restraints really gives more freedom to the client’s voice and the land’s voice. Then I try to interpolate the two into a functional statement."

A deck extends from the main living space. A second private deck is connected to the primary bedroom. — A deck extends from the main living space.
Photo by Austin Lamoreaux

Despite the stylistic freedom afforded by the area, the site’s steep drop off created limitations. But Price viewed them as an opportunity to create a home that responds to the natural contours of the site. He designed a four-level house that, on approach, greets visitors with a subtle sloping metal roof and two cedar setbacks that create the illusion of multiple volumes. In section, the design turns dramatic, with a monolithic roof that appears to stretch down the hillside, tracing the angle of the slope as if being pulled toward the valley below. Here’s how Price worked with the land to build a home for Trisha and Brian that immerses them in their new setting.

Tricia runs her own design firm, T.Haus Design, and led the furnishings for the home, opting for a refined, contemporary aesthetic that feels appropriate for the alpine setting. — The roof in the living area shows the series of folds in the roof that Price designed in part to follow height limits.
Photo by Austin Lamoreaux

See the full story on Dwell.com: How They Pulled It Off: Building a Home Into a Steep Utah Mountainside

Exasperated by Your Landlord? Try Making a Diss Music Video

Two frustrated Clevelanders who wrote a song to call out their building owner are among the many American tenants becoming more vocal about their rights.

"I’m going to war with my landlord," proclaims comedian Caleb Hearon on the podcast The Downside. "These fucking evil freaks continue to ask for more, and we just accept it." The 2025 clip has since gone viral on social media, speaking to the growing boldface ire renters have for their landlords. Finding stability as a tenant comes at a cost that goes up year after year, and renters are increasingly becoming a vocal force for recourse, coming together to fight against rent increases and bad maintenance practices. Hearon calls for town halls between landlords and their tenants, which in today’s political climate have served as a means for the public to come together and yell at powerful folks like elected representatives. (They’ve been so effective that news about congressional reps dodging or the GOP outright barring the public meetings have made the news). His inclination to "go to war" is a shared one, like a biblical blood feud between ancestral land owners and their serfs; locate the enemy, put them in the stocks, and shame them.

In Cleveland, renter-roommates Julia Kim and Cameron Celebuski found themselves in an unusual conflict with their landlord and took their fight to a whole new level: They made a music video. As seen on the Instagram account "I’m From Cleveland," the duo wrote a yacht-rock-esque ballad called "Don’t Rent From Cindy" and produced a five-and-a-half minute video to accompany it under the duo’s name, Kimbuski. The video features some incredible outfits—matching tracksuits, clown costumes, wigs—as well as flute solos, choreography, and screenshots and voicemail messages from their landlord, Cindy. It’s symbolic of what it might mean for tenants to go to war, and the lengths some will go to to hold bad landlords accountable.

Roommates Cameron Celebuski and Julia Kim took a creative approach to their landlord dispute.
Courtesy Kimbuski

This latest dispute between Kim, Celebuski, and their landlord hinges on their four-bedroom house. In the ballad they detail how their two other roommates had moved out, and that Kim was contemplating also moving depending on a job change. Per their singsong narrative, their landlord assured them that they could stay in the house and would bring in two new tenants to live in the vacant rooms; however, she went ahead and rented out Celebuski’s room, too. "You gave [Kim] ’til the end of the month to decide but then you rented out my room to a stranger without even telling me," he sings. "That’s when you texted us out of the blue that one of us would have to leave."

As they recount these events, screenshots of the text messages from their landlord scroll onto the screen; she threatens them with fines—$100 for every day they stayed past their previous lease, plus a $100/month increase in rent "due to the economy." She also texts that "most landlords would have taken more extreme action," maybe a reference to Ohio’s loose tenant protections, which allow landlords to pursue nonpayment evictions on three-day notice. (Some states have laws that require notice upward of 60 days; others, like Indiana, require 10 days, while Texas also requires three.) As a voicemail plays over the instrumental bridge, we hear the landlord say, "I have the right to rent this house to anywhere [sic]."

Elaborate costumes and editing mirror the ridiculousness of the situation Kimbuski was put in by their landlord.
Courtesy Kimbuski

Her messages display how bad landlords often get away with neglecting maintenance or charging junk fees—by relying on tenants not knowing or being able to navigate the complex state and local laws that enforce rights and responsibilities. But Kimbuski did legal research to understand what they’re entitled to. Last year, Cleveland launched a three-year pilot program that is designed to help educate renters about their rights and "organize to fight neglectful landlords and tap into services to pay rent and avoid evictions." Kimbuski consulted with an attorney (also a right under local law) who said that her text messages giving them time to decide whether to stay or move are legally binding; they also found that the homes owned by the landlord’s company are unregistered, which violates Cleveland’s 2024 Residents First law that requires all landlords to register each of their rental units with the city. "It would be a shame if everyone reported you / ’cause you didn’t keep your promises it turned out the whole time / by renting out your house to us you committed a crime allegedly," they sing.

One hopes that Kimbuski’s music video might serve as a warning to other tenants of this particular landlord, who hasn’t issued any type of public rebuttal as of this writing. The internet is built upon the voyeuristic parts of us, reveling as we watch someone publicly put someone else on blast in such an artful way. But it also points to the ways that the tenant/landlord dynamic appears to be worsening, at least publicly, and as tenants become more vocal, some politicians have responded by attending to their specific woes: In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made news over recent months with his Rental Ripoff hearings that led to proposing an array of pro-tenant policies; in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced the Protect Renters Ordinance, which would, like Cleveland, require landlords to register their units with the city.

Kim and Celebuski’s landlord has yet to respond publicly to the music video.
Courtesy Kimbuski

See the full story on Dwell.com: Exasperated by Your Landlord? Try Making a Diss Music Video

The Spaceship Home From "Portlandia" Just Landed on the Market for $975K

Also know as the Eyebrow House, the radically renovated 1941 bungalow had a star turn on the hit show.

Location: 6221 SE Ash Street, Portland, Oregon

Price: $975,000

Year Built: 1941

Year Renovated: 2010

Renovation Architect: Edgar Papazian

Footprint: 2,431 square feet (4 bed, 3 bath)

Lot Size: 0.13 acres

From the Listing: "Tucked into Portland’s Mount Tabor neighborhood, the Eyebrow House began as a modest 1941 Cape Cod home before Yale-trained architect Edgar Papazian transformed it into one of the city’s most distinctive residences. He installed the sweeping arched steel dormers that are its namesake, traded hard angles for sloped ceilings and curved walls, and reoriented the home toward its deep, tree-lined backyard. Its unmistakable silhouette has made it a local icon and recurring filming location for IFC's Portlandia. The heart of the home is an expansive kitchen and dining space, flipped on its axis to transform the private backyard into a living backdrop. Ascending the staircase reveals a remarkably private, sculptural sanctuary on the second level. What was once a narrow tube of space beneath the eaves now soars, thanks to dramatic arched steel dormers that fill it with reflected light. Exposed bolts and fasteners along the ribbed metal ceiling lend an industrial edge, set against rich oak floors, radiant heated for quiet comfort. Triple-glazed arched windows frame the treetop canopy of the backyard below, creating the distinct feeling of living in an elegant, elevated tree house."

Also know as the Eyebrow House, this radically renovated 1941 bungalow had a star turn on "Portlandia."
Photo by Caleb Vandermeer

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Spaceship Home From "Portlandia" Just Landed on the Market for $975K
Related stories:

A Pink Stair Punctuates a Family’s Renovated 720-Square-Foot Madrid Apartment

The flat is reorganized with a sprawling MDF built-in and splashed with more bold color, including yellow shelving and blue tile.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Madrid, Spain

Architect: Burr / @burr.studio

Footprint: 720 square feet

Photographer: Maru Serrano

From the Architect: "AZ06 is the renovation of an existing apartment in Madrid to accommodate a family of five. The project begins with a condition defined by the original layout itself: the presence of the building core—a main staircase, elevators, and an internal courtyard—as the inevitable center of the plan. The intervention takes advantage of this centrality to organize a home that rotates around this void, encouraging a form of circulation that crosses through the apartment and allows it to be experienced cyclically in different ways. The dwelling is no longer understood as a sequence of enclosed rooms, but begins to operate as a system of passage: each room has both an entry route and an exit route, and all of them acquire, to a greater or lesser extent, the condition of a room of passage.

"In plan, the intervention is configured as an infrastructural enclosure. A large piece of furniture divides the more public areas from the more private ones and, at the same time, becomes the main servicing element of the home: it houses installations, concentrates storage capacity, and organizes access to bathrooms and toilets. This is not a matter of ‘furnishing’ the plan, but of introducing an operative thickness that reorganizes the whole, absorbs the technical elements and frees the rest of the apartment for changing uses.

"Materially, this large perimeter enclosure is made of varnished MDF. Upon this continuous base, all singular interventions are understood as inlays or additions: kitchens, large sliding doors, shelving and even access points to hidden rooms appear lacquered in yellow. Color does not operate as a superficial accent, but as a code of interpretation: it marks what is operative, what opens, what contains, what transforms the furniture plane into inhabitable architecture.

"The project is therefore built from two complementary strategies. On the one hand, a large infrastructural gesture that concentrates services and organizes the plan. On the other, a concatenation of spaces designed to be traversed in different ways, allowing alternative itineraries and producing unprogrammed encounters. As a result, the spaces adopt very different forms and sizes depending on the uses they are intended to accommodate: from rooms that seek maximum extension in order to host family life as a whole, to small, almost secret areas. One of the modules of the central shelving unit, which houses the family library, opens to give access to a small study: an enclosed chamber intended for isolated, concentrated work, which is in turn connected to the main bedroom. The project uses furniture as a threshold, as a thick door, capable of containing programs within the system itself.

"Breaking with this logic, a singular piece appears: a metal spiral staircase suspended from the upper floor slab, giving access to a final isolated room, the only one which, together with the bathrooms and toilets, has only one route in and out. Externally, the staircase is clad in pink lacquered sheet metal, forming a cylinder that hovers above the plywood floor of the rest of the apartment. Inside, the space is lined with a layer of padded textile, almost like elongated cushions, which envelop the inhabitant and create an acoustic barrier from the rest of the home."

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Pink Stair Punctuates a Family’s Renovated 720-Square-Foot Madrid Apartment

Before & After: The Finishing Touch for This Firehouse Loft Was a 300-Person Pride Party

Designer Mariano Testa leaned into the Brooklyn building’s history and imperfections—including a concrete floor scuffed by his friends’ footprints—as he breathed new life into the space.

In 2024, Mariano Testa bought a 1,500-square-foot loft in a historic firehouse on the border of the East Williamsburg and Bushwick neighborhoods in Brooklyn, New York.

Mariano Testa lives in a former firehouse, and there’s a heavy metal door that opens to his loft. On the inside of the door, he pins various scraps and mementos from the year—a friend’s wedding invitation, a picture of his dog, Luna, fortune cookie messages. "The door becomes this beautiful record of the year and what’s happening in my life, good and bad," says Mariano. "Maybe like a real-life Instagram wall or something, you know?"

As the founder of Studio Testa and a longtime creative director working for heritage brands like Ralph Lauren and Kiehl’s, it’s no wonder that Mariano landed in a building that has just as many stories to tell. It was 2024, and Mariano had just sold a house in Hudson, New York, when he ran into his real estate agent at a party. He mentioned wanting a bigger apartment in the city, and the agent sent a listing for this Brooklyn loft two days later. "I was not looking for a place, but my agent showed me this firehouse, and when I got into the apartment, it was my dream," says Mariano.

Before: Entry

Before: The loft had a mezzanine level accessed by a small spiral staircase, and a lot of drywall covering the original brick walls.
Courtesy of Studio Testa

After: Entry

The back of Mariano's front door is covered from recollections of the year. — The back of Mariano’s front door is covered with ephemera from the past year.
Photo: Ellen McDermott

Mariano was enamored with the 16-foot-tall, barrel-vaulted ceilings, exposed brick walls, and 1,500-square-foot layout with an outdoor terrace and a mezzanine. The history was good, too, as the building had first housed a local engine company, and then an underground music venue with artist lofts for decades, before it was converted into condos. Less appealing were some of the design decisions that had been made in that latter transformation: the loft had a small, cramped kitchen, no bathroom upstairs, and a tight spiral staircase up to the mezzanine.

After he bought the apartment, Mariano prioritized removing the finishes that concealed its bones, starting with all of the drywall covering the brick. "I love Americana. I love workwear. I love when a pair of jeans is ripped and then you have to stitch it and fix it," says Mariano, who grew up in Buenos Aires, studied design in Barcelona, and has lived in New York for two decades. "When it comes to spaces, I like authenticity."

Before: Living Area

Before: Mariano removed the wall to create a bigger living room at the rear of the apartment. — Before: Mariano removed the dividing wall to create a bigger living room at the rear of the apartment.
Courtesy of Studio Testa

See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: The Finishing Touch for This Firehouse Loft Was a 300-Person Pride Party
Related stories:

Lush Foliage Surrounds This Serene Pasadena Midcentury Listed for $3.9M

Designed by David Stringer, the well-preserved home has original parquet floors, walls of glass, and a wine cave tucked into the hillside.

Location: 832 Canon Drive, Pasadena, California

Price: 3,930,000

Architect: David Stringer

Year Built: 1963

Footprint: 3,492 Square Feet (4 Bed, 5 Bath)

Lot Size: 0.52 Acres

From the Agent: "832 Canon Drive in Pasadena’s Oak Knoll neighborhood is an architectural treasure that stands among the finest examples of iconic Southern California midcentury-modern design. Designed by noted architect David Stringer, AIA, and built by Pasadena's esteemed E.C. Moller Construction Company in 1963, the property’s design features clean lines and an effortless connection to the lush surrounding landscape. From the circular driveway, enter the home through the grand foyer and find yourself in an airy living and dining space. The room features original oak parquet floors, a raised-hearth fireplace with original brick accents, built-in cabinetry, a wet bar, and picturesque views in every direction. Two separate entrances lead to a sizable kitchen with a large picture window, abundant cabinet and countertop space, and access to the laundry room and attached two-car garage. Set on the opposite side of the house and separated from the living space by the entry foyer, each of the home’s three main bedrooms features floor-to-ceiling windows with direct access to the outdoors as well as an en suite bathroom—or in the case of the primary suite, two en suite bathrooms, both with built-in cabinetry and spacious countertops that serve as individual dressing areas. A large office, potentially usable as a fourth bedroom, looks through walls of glass onto a resort-style backyard. Outside you’ll also find one of the property’s most unique features: a spacious wine cave built directly into the hillside, where extensive custom racking and a naturally cool environment evoke old-world Europe."

Designed in 1963 by architect David Stringer, the home is on the market for the first time in over 30 years.
Photo by Brandon Valiente

See the full story on Dwell.com: Lush Foliage Surrounds This Serene Pasadena Midcentury Listed for $3.9M
Related stories:

One of Louis Kahn’s Protégés Designed This $1M Pennsylvania Midcentury With a Koi Pond

In the Philadelphia suburbs, the 1957 home by Carlos Joseph Alvaré has 10-foot walls of glass, exposed Douglas fir beams, fieldstone facades, and a lush, Japanese-inspired garden.

In the Philadelphia suburbs, this 1957 home by Carlos Joseph Alvaré has 10-foot walls of glass, exposed Douglas fir beams, fieldstone facades, and a lush, Japanese-inspired garden.

Location: 1220 Susquehanna Road, Rydal, Pennsylvania

Price: $1,056,000

Year Built: 1957

Architect: Carlos Joseph Alvaré

Footprint: 2,244 Square Feet (3 Beds, 2 Baths)

Lot Size: .72 Acres

From the Agent: "The Rhode Residence is a remarkably preserved single-story midcentury-modern gem in Rydal, Pennsylvania, being offered for sale for only the second time since it was designed and built in 1957. Located in Abington Township, outside Philadelphia, the home was designed by Cuban-born architect Carlos Joseph Alvaré (1924–2017), who worked under Louis Kahn from 1947 to 1951. Alvaré studied architecture at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, with connections to Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier during his education.

Influenced by Kahn and other contemporary modernists, Alvaré designed award-winning homes characterized by facades of Pennsylvania fieldstone, open-flowing layouts, exposed structural elements, custom millwork, expansive windows, and dramatic ten-foot walls of glass that connect the interiors to the natural landscape. His work also emphasized thoughtful siting, natural light, and Japanese-inspired landscape design.

Commissioned by Meyer and Rhea Rhode, longtime patrons of Philadelphia’s arts community, the Rhode Residence is one of the finest surviving examples of Alvaré’s residential work. The home sits on a private, professionally landscaped 0.72-acre lot and retains many of its original architectural details, alongside updates to the roof, mechanical systems, kitchen, bathrooms, electrical system, flooring, lighting, and landscaping. Currently owned by a professional artist, it has been meticulously preserved.

Largely intact midcentury-modern homes by a Kahn protégé that are connected to Philadelphia’s modernist tradition are increasingly rare. The Rhode Residence offers an opportunity to experience a significant and well-preserved example of the region’s postwar residential architecture."