Rustic modern day log home in Utah: Wolf Creek Ranch

Wolf Creek Ranch is a modern day log home designed by Shubin Donaldson Architects, located on 160 acres of working sheep ranch outside the Wasatch National Forest, in Woodland, Utah. The 8,600 square foot residence sits at 7,800 feet altitude with a 180 degree view towards Mt. Timpanogos. This region of forest is plagued by the bark beetle and millions of acres of standing dead trees contribute to unhealthy and dangerous forest conditions.

This house makes use of these dead trees in a cross laminated timber (CLT), solid wood thermal mass structure. Lumber is harvested from the ranch, cleaned and cut on CNC machines by a local timber mill, shop assembled into building panels and shipped to the site ready for install. From dead tree to standing structure is less than a 50 mile round trip.

Development guidelines call for traditional ranch architecture. The plan is separated into three of these basic forms: a sleeping wing, a living wing, and a parking wing. Each wing is turned to respond to arrival, site, and view, with the main living space, envisioned as an enclosed connective porch between wings; skewed off axis slightly to connect a direct line for sight to the peak of Mt. Timpanogos.

The rough traditional exterior materials, of which the exterior siding is reclaimed from the old Salt Lake trestles, become refined interior finishes of the same basic palette, steel, wood, and stone, but with a contemporary bias. The interior side of the solid wood walls and roofs are left exposed as an expression of the structural and thermal mass concepts, and its tag as the modern day log home.

Photos: Alan Blakely Photography

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