Scott Jordan's Idaho Penthouse

Situated in the skier's paradise of Ketchum/Sun Valley, ID, my penthouse home overlooks the natural beauty of Mt. Baldy and the majestic Sawtooth Mountains. But this is not a vacation retreat or mountain getaway... it's our full time home. It's also our office.

While the 2429 square foot penthouse and three levels of outdoor deck space are for living the high life -literally at 5,853 feet above sea level - the lower three floors are office space dedicated to our business, SCOTTeVEST. We've been running our company from this area for nearly a decade, and wanted to shorten our commute to just under twenty seconds.

My wife and I worked with a Sketchup 3D artist to visualize exactly what our home would look like, and developed a sophisticated mix of clean, modern lines and industrial finishes. Our home represents us perfectly, and its design was influenced by the creative concepts behind our business.

There are a million interesting things about this project, but the foundation of everything is the truly unique building. It was created in the 1970s as one of the first eco-friendly buildings, and utilizes a very unusual trombe wall structure to capture heat from the sun and warm the building during the frigid winters. The glass exterior has dark concrete installed behind it, creating an insulating bubble around the structure. We maintained the original design but improved its efficiency as part of our recent home-building project.

More than just being a home on top of an office building, our home is part of a building complex, akin to a scaled-down, self-contained Google campus.  The first three floors of the building contain work spaces for 15 employees, workout facilities and a video studio, and we plan to build out a retail space as well.  We renovated the top floor (the penthouse) last year into our home.  Of course, our three standard poodles have the run of the place.

The connection between the parts of the building is a reflection of the "always on" mentality required to run a successful 24/7 e-commerce company with customers around the world. It feels like the home of the future because everything is wired with screens, computers and the fastest internet commercially available. I am a major gadget guy (I just got back from CES), and even the locks and my coffee maker are controlled by apps. Seriously. 

Our business - SCOTTeVEST - creates tech-enabled clothing with tons of hidden pockets, and the "pockets" theme is carried throughout the design of the building, particularly our home. I am often referred to as the Pocket Man after writing a book of that title during the construction of our home last year. We worked with a 3D designer to create closet systems and even a bed with "pockets" custom made for us.

 I am very proud to say that I have a totally unique home that reflects me (and the stunning view) perfectly!