DAVID EASTON'S ASPEN MODERN
The architecture in Aspen is a potpourri of textured modern structures mixed with an overlay of Alpine-inspired style.
by David Easton
The famous designer writes:
I’ve had the good fortune to work with Frances Dittmer several times in the last twenty-five years—first in Chicago, then for a town house in New York City, and then in the 1990s when she moved to Aspen. It’s always interesting to have a long history with a client and to chart her design evolution. While Frances has always collected modern and contemporary art, her taste in décor has gone from traditional interiors with an emphasis on English antiques to a contemporary look that references the past in subtler ways.
The house was built by a local architect and is situated on the lower part of Red Mountain. There are views looking out onto downtown Aspen, the buildings of the Aspen Institute, and Aspen Mountain.
It’s a simple house made of stone and wood, the classic building materials for the Rocky Mountain region, and it’s what I call a “builder’s house,” in that there is little architectural detail both inside and out. Over the years, Frances made changes to the exterior, again with a resident architect. Because we’ve worked together for so long, she was used to custom-built architectural elements. My goal in working on the interior was to implement that but to preserve the modern character. What makes this seven-thousand-square-foot house interesting is that it’s split into three levels, with all the main rooms on the second and third floors and its five bedrooms on the lower level. A series of terraces off the house all face south and get wonderful sunlight throughout the day.
When Frances moved here, she brought artwork but nothing in terms of furniture. During our trips to Mexico and Santa Fe, we acquired a few ethnic pieces of...
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