The Long House on Antelope Run

The Long House at Antelope Run was designed by two brothers Andy and Wes, as a place to bring their families and friends to share time in a landscape they deeply love. Antelope Run is 30 acres in the heart of the Paradise Valley in Montana.

The Long House is based upon a simple shed and utilizes basic site planning and design principles. The house is a narrow 16’ wide and stretched to 75’ long. The long and narrow plan was initially developed with an 8-foot wide unit to simplify framing and construction and support passive solar principles. All materials and details were developed to be ‘off-the-shelf’ to keep construction costs down- nothing especially custom. A simple strategy of rotating the entry/dining module to craft an entrance and pulling the roof to maximize coverage gives the dwelling its signature form. A design/build project from the outset, the Long House was a true collaboration with the very skilled and creative builder, Weimier Construction, LLC. A little bit vernacular, a little contemporary, with careful orientation to landscape the Long House is hiding in plain sight.

A signature feature of the Long House is the huge roof, 3700 square feet of roof over the modest 1400 square foot footprint of the home. The roof, resting over the dwelling like a large hat, has been carefully designed with passive solar principles to allow the natural sunlight to reach to the back wall of the Great Room in winter and provide deep shade to the house and terrace all summer. The north overhang provides a large carport and exterior works space. The southern overhang of the roof fully shelters a large terrace with fire pit, dining table, grill and ample seating. In a landscape of wild weather extremes, the roof nearly doubles the living space of the home outside- while common many places, this is a very uncommon practice in the residential vernacular of the valley. You can sit on the lodge-like south terrace around the gas fire pit in the rain and snow, remain warm and dry, as you take in the view to Emigrant Peak and further south towards Yellowstone.

The house is designed to sit within the landscape. The house is placed on a low spot to reduce the profile from surrounding properties and far enough from the edge of the slope to just peak over the edge from below. The site grading hugs the house and utilizes land form grading to both shield the house and frame views. Boulders from the site have been utilized to anchor walls and exterior spaces. The siding of the house is made of cor-ten (weathering) steel. The siding is naturally developing a patina that is a deep smooth rusty red that will complement the yellows and oranges of the fall, contrast the bright greens of spring and stand out from the whites and greys of winter.

The two young families, kids aged 21-6 between them, are looking towards a growing and changing family experience. With the help of spouses and kids, the Long House was designed to accommodate a multi-generational timeline- a modest but comfortable home to accommodate generations of grandparents and kids as the family ages into new associations. The house has three rooms and a sleeping loft. In ground floor rooms, the heavily ground concrete floors leave no thresholds to negotiate. The upstairs is about the kids, a loft bedroom for the oldest, an open loft with three single beds for the youngest and a bridge connecting the two ends like a hamster trail.

The Long House centers around the Great Room, a room built for entertainment and relaxation. Oriented due south, the room has 12’ tall windows that span the length of the room broken only by the offset fireplace. The windows frame incredible views of Emigrant Peak and Chico Peak, two iconic and hike-able summits. The open kitchen is designed to promote a familial and entertaining experience. The dining area has a custom table for ten and is a perfect place to share a meal or big poker game with friends. The main Bedrooms sit at the east and west ends of the house. Each large bedroom shares access to the Great Room and each maintains sweeping views of the landscape. A signature piece of the interior of the house is ‘the bridge’ which spans the entire length of the upper floor in the Great Room connecting the East and West Loft spaces. Upstairs in the east, is a sleeping loft with 3 single beds and a play nook for the little ones with an overlook to the Great Room. Across the bridge is the west loft overlook with a reading nook and a view to the Crazy Mountains. The West Loft Bedroom is a secluded cozy room tucked up in the roof line.

Antelope Run is situated within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Wilcox families are doing all they can to support local species from the smallest pollinators to the largest megafauna. They are managing the 30 acres of Antelope Run to increase biodiversity and biomass of the land and have a multi-year ecological restoration plan to carefully improve the habitat for all species that share the acreage. Working with the local USDA office, a local seed company and local nurseries they are actively seeding and planting the 30 acres to support as many local species as possible.

Says Andy,” We love this land and are managing it for the long-term. Our acreage is essentially badly degraded range land and we plan to put in the work to bring it back to a more ecologically diverse baseline. Event still, Pronghorn are regular visitors; mule deer wander by and the elk occasionally bed down in our establishing meadows. If you are lucky, you may catch a gray fox or badger ducking in and out of their dens. Bald eagles, osprey and golden eagles ride the thermal updrafts created by the geological bench and innumerable song birds fly about. Just stand quiet for a while and the sense of awe and wonder really settles in.”

The Wilcox’s are also a family of artists with a unique and growing collection of art and furniture that is meaningful to the family. Many of the pieces in the house are the work of Richard Glazer-Danay (Mohawk), a father-in-law in the family. Ric is internationally collected and has work in the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, The Heard Museum, The British Museum, The Peabody Museum and numerous other museums around the world. There is pottery from grandfather Wilcox. Numerous collage pieces are the work of Andy Wilcox. The collection of work revolves around ideas and concepts of landscape, wonder, contemporary ideas of nature, humor and identity.

Says Wes, “We grew up visiting the greater Yellowstone ecosystem on long road trips. We have always loved this landscape. When Andy and I visited the land that is Antelope Run for the first time together, there was a lone Pronghorn buck out in the middle of the land. A bald eagle was flying off the edge of the bench. It was clear and blue with an unobstructed view all the way to Yellowstone National Park flanked by the Absaroka Range to the east and the Gallatin Range to the west. Wasn't much to say or think about after that, we jumped on the opportunity to build a retreat in Paradise Valley, one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

Antelope Run and the Long House are built for family and friends to share and enjoy. However you may define family, we inclusively welcome you into our home. “

Andy is a professor of landscape architecture, an artist and the primary dwelling designer. Wes is in sports management and real-estate. They grew up in Southern California, lived in numerous places each but always found time to meet for some fly fishing in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. The kids of high school teachers, the summer road trip and camping were the plan for summers. Always a dream, a place like the Long House seemed impossible as kids, which makes the reality it is, that much more special.