Tahoe Truckee | Residential Design · Land Use Planning · Permit Plans
WINCHESTER HOUSE
WINCHESTER HOUSE
Glenshire Truckee California
MOUNTAIN MODERN
3200+ SF
4 BR
3.5 BA
2.5 CAR GARAGE
GUEST-SUITE
Project Team
Designer:
MASTRIDICASA
Contractor:
Base Camp Builders
Structural Engineering:
Linchpin Structural Engineering
Interior Design
Bridget Warren Design
A mountain modern home shaped around slope, budget, design guidelines, and a close collaboration with clients who understand how homes get built.
Set on a heavily treed Glenshire lot that drops away from the road toward open green space, this project required careful planning from the beginning. The site offered privacy and forest character, but it also brought real constraints: steep topography, excavation limits, HOA design review, access, structure, and budget.
The clients brought unusual clarity to the process. She is an interior designer with a strong point of view. He is a general contractor who understood the cost and construction implications of every major move.
We developed a 3,200+ square-foot mountain modern home with four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, a guest suite, and a 2.5-car garage. The result is a home shaped by clear priorities, site-specific thinking, and the practical realities of building in Truckee.
EXISTING CONDITIONS PARCEL
The site slopes immediately away from the road, creating both opportunity and constraint.
A heavily treed setting and open green space beyond the property gave the home a strong natural context, but the topography required careful attention to access, excavation, cut slopes, drainage, structure, driveway design, and the relationship between the home and the street.
Before the design could settle, the site had to be understood. The land was not a backdrop. It was one of the main design drivers.
SITE PLANNING
The site plan went through several iterations before the final layout was resolved.
The challenge was to balance the clients’ goals with budget, topography, HOA design review requirements, excavation limits, access, garage placement, and how the home would sit into the slope.
Because one of the owners is also the builder, the budget conversation was direct and practical. Each design move had to earn its place.
The final layout satisfied the design review requirements while giving the home a more natural relationship to the land, the road, and the green space beyond.
SECTION
On a sloping site, the section matters as much as the floor plan.
The vertical relationship between garage, entry, living spaces, lower levels, grade, excavation, and roof form shaped how the home could work. A good section helps resolve access, structure, cost, views, light, and how the building meets the land.
For this project, studying the section helped clarify how the home could step with the site instead of fighting it.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
The design process was collaborative and highly specific.
With an interior designer and builder as clients, the conversations moved quickly from vision to execution. Layout, structure, materials, cost, details, and construction logic were all part of the process from the beginning.
That kind of collaboration can be demanding, but it also makes the work better. When design intent and construction reality stay in the same conversation, the project has a better chance of moving forward clearly.
