Alpine State of Mind
High design, higher altitude
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I just got back from a few days in Utah, staying at Snowbird, the first “studiously modern” American ski resort. Designed in 1970, it’s a brutalist icon that rises from Little Cottonwood Canyon. Cast in concrete and balanced with timber it “erupts from nature, rather than imposing on it,” said the architect, Jack Smith.
There’s something magnetic about places like this — buildings that make you feel the landscape, not just look at it. Fall has a way of heightening that sense — the air’s sharper, the materials feel warmer, light turns inward.
This issue is dedicated to mountain spaces — alpine lodges and high-altitude retreats that connect us back to something elemental.
THE ALPINE COLLECTION
Lodges and retreats that bring design to higher ground
Deer Valley — Electric Bowery (Park City, Utah)
Electric Bowery reimagines the alpine chalet through a contemporary lens, merging the warmth of Swiss and Austrian tradition with the meditative calm of a Japanese Ryokan.
Howqua River Lodge — Rob Mills Architects (Victoria, Australia)
Set deep in Victoria’s alpine country, Howqua River Lodge balances self-sufficiency with sophisticated living, creating a retreat that feels both elemental and elevated.
Scribner’s Catskill Lodge — Studio Tack (Hunter, New York)
A 1960s motor lodge turned modern mountain retreat, Scribner’s is equal parts eclectic hideout and social hub for adventure-oriented, design-minded travelers headed Upstate.
Planning an Upstate escape?
Send a note to concierge@linear-magazine.com to get started — we’ll handle the booking, perks, and a few small luxuries along the way.
Oberholz Mountain Hut — Peter Pichler Architecture + Pavol Mikolajcak Architekten (Obereggen, Italy)
Perched 2,000 meters up in the Dolomites, Oberholz appears to grow directly from the slope, its timber ribs echoing the form of traditional mountain huts.
Sun Valley Ski House — Yond (Sun Valley, Idaho)
Yond revives a retro home with bright timber, clean lines, and an eye for gathering, designed for adventure outside and togetherness within.
SIXTY SECONDS WITH
This week, we’re chatting with Alan Mark, an architect who designs for feeling. His work spans residential and cultural projects, exploring how space shapes the mind and body. Through both practice and writing, Alan’s become a voice for architecture expanding beyond built form and into lived experience.
How does your body tell you when a space is well designed?
I feel at ease. There’s a quiet relief when nothing’s fighting for attention. My mind settles first, and my body follows.
What’s a moment in architecture that’s changed how you felt in your own skin?
The heat of a sauna lifts everything away, leaving only my body and my breath. It’s architecture at its most visceral.
When you enter a building, what’s the first sensation you notice?
I notice the weight of the space. Some feel heavy and grounded, others light and open. That balance shapes the atmosphere of a place.
What small detail in the built world recently shifted your mood?
I’ve been working on a house from the 1850s. I love uncovering the stories hidden in old structures. But every time I stub my toe I’m reminded that reality is never perfectly drawn.
What’s a ritual (walking, sitting, looking) that helps you tune into space?
I frame views in my head. Photography taught me how to see, and I still do it even without a camera. For all my interest in multisensory experience, vision still has a strong pull.
We met Alan on Twitter. You can find him on Instagram, and online.
NEW
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QUICK HITS
A few design stories we bookmarked this week
Boardroom confidential: Someone found a passport-sized book filled with portraits of 20th-century boardrooms at Europe’s biggest companies. Very cool vibes.
High design seas: Jony Ive spent two years designing a lamp for his yacht. Of course he did.
Sans Siro: Milan just approved the demolition of San Siro stadium. RIP to those iconic people-moving towers.
Old school cool: A24’s first restaurant, Wild Cherry, opens inside West Village’s Cherry Lane Theater. Movie people, meet the supper club set.
Limited edition: One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s seven Usonian Automatic homes was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Kalil House — concrete, compact, a little crazy.
Open to the Public: Ian Schrager’s Public Hotel is landing on the Sunset Strip in 2026 — his first for the group in LA, and second hotel in the city overall.
ASK LINEAR
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Send your ideas, stories, or questions our way. Together, we’ll turn them into the next Linear stories, interviews, itineraries, and dispatches for the Architecturally Curious.