Tag Archives: architecture

Home Award Season

Gym with a view

It’s my favorite season of the year (work-wise, that is) as it’s TQ Home Award season! I LOVE the Home Awards! Last month, I joined TQ and the panel of experts for two days of home tours. It’s a very fun group and I really enjoy our annual get together tours.

The first day was our Tahoe day. We always somehow get crazy weather for tours, so it was practically a white-out as I drove over Mt. Rose Highway, but then much more manageable in the basin. We saw a gorgeous house near Palisades (and I trusted the builder when he said there were fabulous views when it wasn’t blizzarding), a minimalistic zen-style home in the trees and a glamorously styled lakefront (everything Aspen Leaf’s Marcio Decker designs is amazing) before breaking for lunch.

Ladder for a wine room!

Afterward, we saw a building that I feel qualifies in the category of construction by people who just have way too much money. This guy acquired the property beside his lakefront estate, then tore down the cabin there to build a gym. Because of zoning regulations, it also had to have a kitchen and bedroom, but really it’s just a glorified gym, albeit a glorified gym on a gorgeous piece of property with stunning views. Then we ended the day with a home in Clear Creek Tahoe, which ALSO had beautiful views, though of the surrounding Carson Valley.

On the second day, we toured some Reno homes: A modern masterpiece in Arrowcreek, an ADU that complemented this wild 1970s era home (where I really could have spent hours exploring and hearing stories about from the very knowledgeable owners), as well as this very cool contemporary gem in South Reno.

South Reno home

I called dibs on five of those homes to write about (not the glorified gym, as my take on it was that some people really just have way too much money), so as soon as kids go back to school on Tuesday following the winter break, I’m looking forward to deep diving into all of them!

TQ Mountain Home 2025

My favorite issue of Tahoe Quarterly is now on shelves! I love the architecture issue. In late 2024, I toured some of the homes with the TQ judging panel. We started at Clear Creek Tahoe, took a hiatus for lunch at the Tunnel Creek Café, then visited a gorgeous lakeshore remodel.

I wrote about all three houses I toured—plus an ultramodern home on Donner Summit—for this issue. All four were incredible houses: I loved the minimalistic, Scandinavian style of the Donner Summit home and the pops of color and homage to the founder of supergraphics, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, in the West Shore remodel (and the stunning views of Lake Tahoe weren’t bad either!).

The Clear Creek homes were both designed by Ryan Marsden. Both gorgeous, yet very different. The first we toured was this timeless, classic home… with an unbelievable game room attached. SO fun and elevated it from just another beautiful home to something really fun and unique that worked for the entire family.

The second home we toured was unbelievable—I’ve never seen such extensive panes of glass. Like, it was totally see-through. While it did not win the Outstanding award, it was the magazine cover photo. The owners are fascinating also, I had such a nice time chatting with them! I’ll try to upload stories to my website at some point, but in the meantime, if you’d like to read the stories, links to the Tahoe Quarterly website below:

Mas Elegante

Home on the Ranch

Resilient by Design

Lakefront Legacy