GRAPHĒ: A Soaring Library in This Boulder Home Makes the "Bookshelf Wealth" Trend Look Like Small Potatoes

Its owner, a publisher from Boston, brought over their entire archive to create a double-height reading room.

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Project Details:

Location: Boulder, Colorado

Architect: Tres Birds / @tresbirdsworkshop

Footprint: 2,572 square feet

Structural Engineer: Gebau

Surveyor: Flatirons

Geotechnical Engineer: Triax Engineering

Photographer: Mickkail Cain / @mickkail.photo

From the Architect: "The Iris Residence is the result of a decade-long collaboration between Tres Birds and Shambhala Publications’ owner and publisher, Ivan Bercholz, rooted in a shared belief that buildings can carry memory, and that materials deserve continuity beyond a single use. The relationship began in 2015, when Tres Birds design-built Shambhala’s relocation from Boston to Boulder. The design-builder and client bonded on an initial trip to Boston, carefully dismantling existing hardwood bookshelves for reuse in the company’s new Boulder home. At the heart of this new space was Shambhala’s complete publishing archive—a hard copy of every book the company has ever produced. When the company relocated in 2020, the archive no longer fit within the new office. Rather than dispersing it, Ivan chose to bring it home. The Iris Residence was, in many ways, designed around that decision.

"A double-height archive space organizes the house, anchoring the primary stair and extending across both levels. More than storage, it acts as the intellectual and atmospheric center of the home—housing the full history of the company within the owner’s daily routine. Materials from the original offices were once again dismantled, stored, and reincorporated, allowing the archive to retain not only its contents, but its physical continuity.

"The house itself emerged from a series of pragmatic constraints that ultimately reinforced Tres Birds’ broader mission. The property was subdivided to create a new infill lot—adding density within an existing neighborhood rather than expanding into greenfield development. The new home occupies a narrow flag lot with frontage on Iris Avenue, carefully positioned within tight setbacks while responding to Boulder’s floodplain requirements. The main living level is elevated four feet above grade, balancing resilience with neighborhood scale.

"These constraints shaped a long, narrow gabled form that proved ideal for high-performance design. Every space is daylit with a modest glazing-to-envelope ratio, allowing for a highly insulated and airtight envelope. The east-west orientation creates an extended south-facing roof plane, optimized for solar gain and photovoltaic production—using panels salvaged from a previous project. The result is a low-energy home with a HERS rating of 10 that, since we began tracking utility bills when Ivan moved in, has been producing more energy than it consumes."