6400 Tepee Ridge Road in Bozeman, Montana
6400 Tepee Ridge Road – Larry Pearson has established a reputation for integrating homes into the landscape, having their rooflines and materials mirror and enhance the natural world. Reclaimed timbers, native stones, rusted and weathered corrugated metal, and the architecture itself is incorporated to achieve understated simplicity and timelessness. He draws from the local history to create enduring buildings that speak to the soul of the place. An example of this is seen in the guest house and stable complex, with a continuous roof and breezeway separating the two functions. The building utilizes a reverse framing method that was the construction of choice for Montana granaries as it prevented grain from being trapped in the interior. A bump-up cupola in the center of the long expanse of the low-slung stable roof accents the pitch and glory of the background Bridger Mountains and balances the gabled roofline of the two-story guest home. You’d swear the building has always been part of the landscape, rather than built in 2007.
The main home and guest house/ stables are sited to showcase the 360 degree views that encompass the entire face of the Bridger Mountains, stretching to the south and west into the Gallatin Valley, capturing the distant and quite dramatic Spanish Peaks, including Lone Mountain as a focal point, at the southernmost horizon of the Gallatin Valley. The Bridgers are immediate, seemingly so close you can reach your hand and touch them, while the eastern view is dominated by mountainous dense forests. Being Montana, the sky is immense and ever-changing, a masterpiece of natural art.
Sitting on the deck off the Great Room of the main home, or the patio of the guest home, you feel you are literally in the center of the universe, with the structures present to embrace and shelter you, while the sky never ceases to enchant.
Throughout the compound, the aesthetics rely on a seamless use of organic materials blended and banded with exposed industrial steel beams, hand-forged metal hardware, hand-scraped irregular width reclaimed planks, expanses of windows and glass doors, and layer upon layer of textures. The surrounding irrigated lawns meld into cement, flagstone, or gravel walks. Courtyards and patios are set off with large boulders from which either ageless timbers or metal beams arise to frame the structure. Native stone forms the transition from ground to timbers to roof, in places an apron width, while in other areas becoming an entire wall, utilized in both the interior and exterior. The two homes and stables, integrated with nature and built for easy care and maintenance in the alpine mountain setting, appear to have been on this site since
Montana’s trapper and homesteader days. However, while the exteriors are rooted in Montana agrarian and territorial history, the interiors are crafted like an exquisite Asian spa, serene, natural, clean-lined and contemporary, always honoring the landscape and abundant natural light. No detail is happenstance, and everything is flawlessly balanced and harmonic. Each building retains its own function and character, yet is joined by materials and architectural integrity as a whole. People are happy and honored to be here.
The patios and deck roofs of both homes have support timbers arising from boulders, which harmonize with the flagstone, concrete, and gravel used in the landscaping and outdoor entertaining spaces. Interior and exterior color palettes are derived from the rocks, boulders, stones, and the neighboring mountains. The massiveness of the materials is continuously balanced and lightened by the extensive use of glass, in the form of glass French doors, abundant windows, and entire glass walls with sliding barn doors to frame the light and views. Interior and exterior spaces merge, especially in the breezeway entrance to the guest home in which the wide covered opening dividing the stables from the home are large outdoor entertaining areas and act as a frame to the Bridger Mountains. Ceilings vary from room-to-room, house to house, ranging from simple plaster to reclaimed wood. Some of the ceilings are vaulted, rising to 22-foot heights, adding to the open, airy, light feeling of the homes.
The luxurious three bedroom main house features an exterior of wide-planked fir siding lapped on steel flashing combined with stone, copper, and metal. Resolutely framed, it is a meaty structure, softened by the billowing awning of the west-facing deck. It is marvelous to lounge on the deck overlooking the two trout-stocked lakes, the gurgling sound of water flowing down the hillside creek and between the lakes. You may even hear the bugling of elk while sitting on the deck or guest house patio while watching the western skies aflame in sunset colors.
The inviting main home nestles into a gradual slope, providing both an upper and lower level entry. The primary floors are stained concrete with radiant heat, the neutral colored plaster walls have a recessed metal baseboard, and ceilings are plaster with timber and metal beams. Contemporary fixtures are used throughout, from the lighting, hand wrought hardware, bathroom sinks and even frosted glass cabinet doors.
The main floor master suite includes a fireplace set in stone, vaulted ceiling, sliding barn doors into the modern spa bath with a spacious shower and soaking tub set into a stone and wood deck.
In both homes, the handmade metal spiral staircase with wide planked steps helps set the tone of creative approaches to an upscale and contemporary Montana ranch lifestyle. In the guest home, the lower floor family room extends beyond the upper floor kitchen/living/great room, providing an indoor balcony feeling with the balcony railing and spiral staircase opening up the entire public spaces. A wall of the south, north, and west facing windows, encompassing the two floors up to the vaulted ceilings are spectacular, as is the “glass” office adjoining the great room kitchen, with its windows and views part of the whole.
The main home has an oversized, attached 3 car garage built for large trucks and toys with an entrance into a private studio/exercise room, which also has its own exterior entry. The home has been sited and built with the knowledge that someone may wish to enlarge the home as it has a small footprint. An addition is easily executed.
Both homes have gourmet kitchens with top-of-the-line appliances, natural stone counters, custom cabinetry, bar seating, and an open floor plan for friends and family to gather. Fireplaces are important features, as are flat-screen televisions, surround audio sound systems that extend to the ample outdoor living areas, and a balance of public and private spaces. Designed for Montana, the mud rooms, coat and boot storage, and areas for “Toy” storage is generous. All bedrooms are inviting and roomy, sophisticated, and enjoy sitting areas, views and privacy. One of the 3 bedrooms in each home is a designated “bunk” room with 3 built-in bunk beds. The other two bedrooms in the guest home have built-in platform beds that have a Zen feeling to them.
Horses enjoy life here to the same degree of sophisticated luxury as the humans. The 4 stall stable is state-of-the-art, airy, roomy, and with a high pitched roof. Hitching posts, corrals, an arena with ideal sand footing, tack room, grain and hay storage, drains for showering and hosing off horses and gear, and large causeways for equipment are stylishly integrated into the ranch complex. Horses do have to be willing to share their grass pastures and hayfields with the elk.
The “back of the house” and systems are as impressive as the architecture and finishes. Built to last, Dos Marias would like to welcome you for a long visit.
See the full 6400 Tepee Ridge Road Listing HERE.
