Aspen Times Weekly: Modern-Day Designers

Aspens silver-mining heyday produced many of the towns most iconic structures: the Pitkin County Courthouse, the former armory turned City Hall, the regal Wheeler Opera House and the crown jewel the Hotel Jerome.

Its too soon to tell how the test of time will regard some of the more modern structures. But one thing is certain, longtime Aspen-area firm Cottle Carr and Yaw Architects has put its stamp on the modern era by designing some of the more high-visibility structures over the last 30 years.

CCY, as the firm is now known, was selected to build what could arguably be called Aspens three most important and sensitive projects undertaken since the mid-1980s. It was selected by Aspen Skiing Co. to reinvent the base area of Aspen Mountain with the Silver Queen Gondola plaza in 1987 and Little Nell Hotel in 1989. It undertook the addition to the Hotel Jerome in 1987. It was the company under pressure for coming up with a design appropriate for the replacement of the Sundeck Restaurant atop Aspen Mountain in 1999.

In each case, the firm was playing with fire. The base area project would define Aspen Mountain for decades to come. The Hotel Jerome addition had to blend with what is the most revered building in town for many people. The demolition of the old Sundeck was met with significant skepticism; CCYs design had to relieve the angst.

Larry Yaw, one of the three partners in the firm with John Cottle and Rich Carr, shrugged off the pressure of working on the Sundeck. It was no more than usual, he said. Every time you work on something purposeful, it reduces the stress, he said.

Whether the partners want to admit it or not, the pressure probably couldnt have been greater then when the firm worked on the Little Nell Hotel and gondola plaza. Skico envisioned a five-star hotel and it required a design for the public plaza that tied the town and mountain together.

We put a porch on the town to the mountain. We knit them together with that design. Thats fantastic, Cottle said, sounding much more like a proud papa than a boastful architect.

The firms employees are absolutely aware that they are working on some of the projects that will help define Aspen and its ski areas, according Cottle.

Statistically, he said he is uncertain if CCY has designed the most projects downtown, but hes proud of the legacy the firm is creating. I always thought we had the most robust history and forward-looking projects in downtown, he said.

The partners said they want their designs to reflect the current era and the traditions of the community, but also be forward-looking.

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Aspen Times Weekly: Modern-Day Designers