Building Luxury:
It takes more than money

by Peter Boltz

Luxury is one of those words people use without ever nailing down what it is they mean.

That is, unless they are building a luxury home.

Then they need to choose architectural plans, building materials and finishes to define their idea of luxury.

In the Wood River Valley, the definition of a luxury home comes out of a collaboration of architects, builders, interior designers, landscapers and their clients.

Ketchum architect Jim McLaughlin called the building of such a home an “interesting and dynamic process,” one in which his level of involvement varies according to his clients. 

“Some clients have a lot of ideas, and they rely on us to help them organize those ideas into a single concept. Other clients have a ‘look’ in mind but need help executing the individual parts and details.

These concepts then begin to take form and undergo an evolutionary process to yield a unique home.

“Custom-built homes require constant re-evaluation from start to finish,” McLaughlin added. “Most of these homes take 14 months to two years to build, and, in that time, clients are exposed to new ideas and products that often sway the end result away from the original intent.”

McLaughlin welcomes the involvement of clients, because it gives him direction and adds the client’s personality to the home. He said the more difficult clients are those who say, “We want a home, but we have no time for involvement.”

Another Ketchum architect, Jim Ruscitto, said most of his clients are “fairly clear about what they want, or they say something we can decipher, or they show us a picture of what they want.”

In one case, a client had two 14-foot doors from a warehouse in Belgium that he wanted for the entrance to his home. Ruscitto ended up designing the entire home around these doors. 

Connie Hagestad and Janet Krogh, interior designers and owners of the Design Studio in Ketchum, described the building of a luxury home as a team effort that includes the client.

Clients often come in with ideas Hagestad and Krogh haven’t yet seen, even though they work hard to keep up with new interior design ideas.

“It’s a very interesting process,” Krogh said.

“Clients are very sophisticated about what they want in their homes.”

Clients typically have been “exposed to a wide variety of influences,” Ruscitto added, including having spent a lot of time in Europe and having built one or two other homes.

Many of the luxury homes designed by Ruscitto and McLaughlin have an Old World quality about them. For example, builder Dave Wilson, who often works with Ruscitto and McLaughlin, said he worked with one client who wanted all the interior of his home to be made from 400-year-old oak lumber. In the same home, he installed a limestone fireplace, “big enough to walk into” that originally had been in a Belgium castle.

On another project, Wilson incorporated a 600-year-old wood mantel into a new fireplace installation.

Ruscitto calls these centuries-old pieces “artifacts” that his clients purposely search for in Europe to give their homes an Old World look.

Many of his clients want “a timeless design,” McLaughlin said, “something that feels substantial and permanent, something to be passed on to their children.” Materials, whether actually old or made to look old, play a large part in this illusion.

Hagestad and Krogh often use glazing on surfaces like limestone, “to give it a worn, aged look, as if it had been handled a lot.”

“We’re fortunate to have a concentration of craftsmen and design talent here in the valley who specialize in creating an Old World look,” McLaughlin said.

Having a one-of-a-kind look, or individual style, also defines the valley’s luxury homes. This look means custom-made cabinets, furniture, window treatments and flooring. Artists are commissioned to create one-of-a-kind wall hangings and ceramics.

Amenities and technology also play a part in the creation of the luxury home. These include saunas, steam baths, libraries, offices, indoor pools, home theaters, lighting systems and sound systems.

McLaughlin said one home he helped build had a central music system with connections to every room in the house. People in one room could choose and listen to one selection, while those in another could choose to listen to something different.

But it’s not just “stuff” that makes a luxury home, Ruscitto said. 

“Clients want the comfortable, the familiar, like an old pair of slippers, where they can sit down and feel at home.”

Of course, all of this luxury costs. By Wilson’s reckoning, the cost is between $300 and $500 per square foot. McLaughlin prices luxury at $250 and up per square foot. The largest luxury home he’s worked on was 30,000 square feet, he said, and the smallest was 1,200 square feet.

Hagestad and Krogh said they know of a Thunder Spring condominium valued at $700 a square foot.
What pushes the cost-per-square-foot up are unique elements. These are the old doors, old lumber and castle fireplaces from Belgium. These are the one-of-a-kind pieces of art, furniture and cabinetry. These are the custom lock sets, moldings, tile and fixtures. 

These elements include everything, “attached and unattached,” as Hagestad and Krogh put it, even down to toothbrushes. All the new owners have to worry about is having a key to get in. 

Furthermore, all these different elements need to come together in some organic way. 

McLaughlin calls this “melding.” 

Interior elements must work in harmony with each other, with the exterior of the building, the landscaping and the surrounding geography.

If a room has antiques furnishing it, the decor may be made to look equally aged. If the room is made of centuries-old timbers and has an ancient fireplace, the furniture is likely chosen to fit the theme, appearing to be antique, even if it is brand new.

While this kind of luxury sounds like it is driven by unlimited funds, everyone interviewed said they work within a budget as restrictive as any, just larger, and one that requires choices.

Wilson sees home building as involving three variables: price, square footage and quality of materials. You can pick two, he said, but the third is locked in by whatever two you pick.

Luxury, it seems, is a variable thing and hard to define, a point widely agreed upon by these architects and designers. 

Even so, Hagestad and Krogh ventured a definition many people in the Wood River Valley could agree with.

Just living here, they said, is the luxury. •