Tahoe Truckee | Residential Design · Land Use Planning · Permit Plans
AUSTIN RIDGE MOUNTAIN RETREAT
AUSTIN RIDGE MOUNTAIN RETREAT
Martis Peak Estates Truckee California
MASTER PLAN / DESIGN BUILD:
NEW POOL HOUSE
IN-GROUND POOL
PERGOLA
EVENT SPACE
Project Team
Designer:
MASTRIDICASA
Contractor:
CMJR Construction Inc
Structural Engineer:
Shear Force Engineering
Mechanical Engineer:
15000 Inc.
Interior Designer:
Owner
Photography:
Dave Donnelly / MASTRIDICASA
A phased mountain retreat shaped around land, long views, infrastructure, gathering, and the freedom to evolve over time.
Set on 20 acres in Martis Peak Estates, the property offered unusual scale and privacy, along with the challenge of turning a collection of ideas into a coherent place for family, friends, recreation, and year-round mountain life.
MASTRIDICASA developed the master plan and design-build strategy for the improvements, coordinating site circulation, infrastructure, an in-ground container pool, raised pergola platform, firepit and patio, outdoor kitchen and bar, sports courts, and pool barn/cabana.
Rather than treating those pieces as separate amenities, the work organized them around movement, views, gathering, and the larger experience of the land.
The result is expansive without feeling scattered: a retreat designed to unfold across the property and continue evolving over time.
This design-build project received the 2024 CATT Award for Best Commercial Project.
EXISTING CONDITIONS
The property offered an extraordinary starting point: 20 acres of ridge-top land, long views, privacy, and an existing residence already well positioned in the landscape.
The opportunity also came with substantial site demands. Before new gathering and recreation areas could take shape, we needed to understand the existing infrastructure, access, utilities, grading, circulation, previous permits, and the practical limits of building across a mountain property.
That early work established what could remain, what needed improvement, and where new investment would have the greatest effect.
MASTER PLAN
Before ground was broken, we spent considerable time walking the property, studying the land, and testing ideas in the field.
The owner envisioned a retreat that could support intimate family time, guests, outdoor recreation, and much larger gatherings without turning the property into a collection of disconnected destinations.
The master plan organized those ambitions across the site, coordinating views, circulation, infrastructure, construction sequencing, and future phases.
Accurate 3D modeling allowed us to study sightlines, grade changes, relationships between features, and the experience of moving through the property from multiple vantage points.
The objective was not simply to place the pieces. It was to establish an order for the whole property.
PHASING + FIELD COORDINATION
The master plan had to work as a construction strategy as well as a design strategy.
Early phases included generator installation, driveway paving, excavation for the in-ground container pool, site preparation, utility coordination, structural planning, and layout of the primary outdoor gathering areas.
Access, staging, equipment movement, grading, weather, and the sequence of future work all influenced what happened first and how the pieces were coordinated.
Because this was a true design-build effort, the drawings, models, contractor, consultants, and conditions in the field remained in active conversation as the work progressed.
Before construction began, the Austin Ridge property was largely unchanged beyond the existing residence.
The early work focused on reading the land, understanding access, and determining how infrastructure, recreation, gathering spaces, and future phases could be organized across the site without competing with one another.
BREAKING GROUND / INFRASTRUCTURE
Much of what makes Austin Ridge work is almost invisible once the project is finished.
Grading, access, utilities, conduit, data, lighting, controls, and site coordination formed the backbone of the early work.
More than two miles of CAT5 cable and conduit were installed across the property to support security, communication, entertainment, controls, and long-term flexibility.
The infrastructure came first so the finished property could feel effortless later.
The outdoor kitchen sits within the main gathering sequence, close to the pool, patio, firepit, and pergola.
Its placement allows cooking and serving to remain part of the activity rather than pulling people away from it, supporting the long, informal gatherings the property was designed around.
PHASE I - IV COMPLETE
The custom ModPool and patio anchor one of the primary outdoor living areas.
Rather than standing alone, the pool was planned as part of a larger sequence connecting the firepit, pergola platform, outdoor kitchen, pool barn, and long views beyond.
The individual elements have different uses, but together they create one gathering landscape.
PERGOLA
Raised at the edge of the overlook, the pergola creates a defined place to pause without separating itself from the larger landscape.
Its position frames long views toward Truckee and Northstar while maintaining a direct relationship to the pool, patio, firepit, and outdoor kitchen below.
More than a shade structure, it gives the outdoor spaces a center of gravity: a place to gather, look outward, and take in the scale of the setting.
POOL BARN INTERIOR
The pool barn gives the outdoor spaces something less glamorous but equally important: support.
Changing, storage, cleanup, gathering, and easy movement between inside and out all happen here, keeping those functions close without asking the primary outdoor spaces to absorb them.
It is not the centerpiece.
It is what lets the centerpiece work.
