A Homestead Era Tribute
by Cassidy Mantor
Enjoying a Generational Home from Payne Cole
Designing and building a 27,000-square-foot compound is a massive undertaking. Doing it in 18 months seems almost Sisyphean. But not for Payne Cole, the tech-driven design firm that delivers high-quality custom home designs with extraordinary efficiency. When time with one’s family is the only thing money cannot buy, the Payne Cole process swiftly delivers the most exceptional homes.
Deep Bay was designed for clients from Canada who wanted a generational property where they could host their entire family at the lake. With several grandchildren growing up all too fast, their sense of urgency was driven by their desire to spend precious time with their family. They designed a 15,000-square-foot house with a 4,500-square-foot game barn, and an 8,000-square-foot attached garage/lounge space. The clients met with Payne Cole in late August, with construction beginning in December of 2023, just three months after their initial meeting. The Payne Cole process proved, once again, to be the new generation of architecture and design.
One of the secrets to Payne Cole’s success is their hyper-realistic renderings and animations. “With these renderings, clients can visualize what their house will look like down to flooring, countertops, and furniture and that visualization moves the design process along more efficiently and in a more enjoyable manner for the client,” says Eric Payne, Co-Founder. Within a week or two of their initial meeting, clients are presented with initial sketches. Within four to six weeks, clients are looking at their new home’s exterior and interior renderings, as if in photos.
“This is a total reversal of the typical architectural process, this in turn simplifies final client design decisions early and allows the final architectural and structural phases to go both quickly and near revision-free,” says Payne. “This gives you an early, incredibly realistic look at your future home before the builder even breaks ground,” adds Laney Hensel, Director of Business Development for Payne Cole.
“With these renderings, clients can visualize what their house will look like down to flooring, countertops, and furniture and that visualization moves the design process along more efficiently and in a more enjoyable manner for the client.”
–Eric Payne, Co-Founder, Payne Cole
SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES
Visualizing one’s house allows Nic Cole, Co-Founder and Licensed Architect, to make preliminary sketches. He collects the client’s objectives and goals and defines the design before his first site visit. Then he brings a drone to survey the lot and get a better idea of how to design a house that fits the land best. When it’s a lake house, such as Deep Bay, he will make his first site visit from the water aboard his boat.
Everything about working with Payne Cole involves a perspective shift. “I bring my drone to the shore and visualize what the best-looking house would be from the lake,” Cole says. “Then I go back to the office and draw a house based on the owner’s thoughts and desires, what I feel like they want to see and what I think would make sense for the site. We want our architecture to make the house look like it was meant to be on the site, not forced there.” In the case of Deep Bay, the house became a bridge between the two mountainsides flanking the property and occupying the valley between. As with every project, this landmark design began on a piece of parchment, one pencil stroke at a time.
“We want our architecture to make the house look like it was meant to be on the site, not forced there.”
–Eric Payne, Co-Founder, Payne Cole
“We tried to create a hierarchy with a noble effect so that when you look at the house from the lake, you understand the identity of each associated space. The main living area is emphasized while master and guest wings are complementary to the main structure,” Cole explains. “The flat roofs on the dock and covered porches were meant to match the horizontal nature of the shoreline and unite the structure with the site to subtly fit into the landscape of Deep Bay,” Cole adds.
QUALITY WITHOUT COMPROMISE
Approaching Deep Bay from the water, the homestead era-inspired lake house gives the impression that it occupies a liminal space somewhere between floating on the surface of the lake and being gently nestled on the shoreline. A two-story “game barn” by the water’s edge serves the dual purpose of challenging the house’s symmetry while also providing function as a retaining wall for the steep mountain to the east.
Inside the main house, an expansive chef’s kitchen that includes two waterfall islands, one that offers seating for eight and the other for the ultimate in food prep functionality. Around the corner, the dining room sits as though part of the outdoor reflecting pool with a glass-covered pebble floor. The great room is massive by any standard, yet inviting. It is a family gathering space that has expansive views of the lake from a wall of glass, 35 feet in height. An opposite bookend to the main house is the garage that houses an 8,000-square-foot auto museum with collector’s cars and motorcycles, complete with a four-car turntable. “The renderings helped us expedite our design without compromising on the details. Leveraging Payne Cole’s technology enhanced our ability to create a unique atmosphere,” says Colton Martini, Director of Interior Design, Payne Cole.
“Our work is about combining the owner’s needs with what the site is saying to us.”
–Eric Payne, Co-Founder, Payne Cole
Payne Cole thrives within tight time constraints. While most other firms would see a short timeframe as an insurmountable challenge, Payne Cole embraces it with the delivery processes that help clients make decisions faster. “The renderings provide immense clarity for the team during the process, resulting in confident decision-making for both the clients and the entire Payne Cole team,” adds Payne.
The firm delivers quickly without compromising quality. Their design technique is a time-tested process that helps visualize what elements must go on a site. “We are great at designing and we are great at doing it quickly. Often, the first sketch is the best design,” Cole says. “Our work is about combining the owner’s needs with what the site is saying to us.” Payne Cole has designed many luxury projects over the years and through that process has learned to trust their first instincts about a site.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
Having just recently expanded to the Park City region, Payne Cole already has nearly a dozen projects in Park City, primarily located in exclusive ski and golf communities. The firm is also working on many projects in Jackson, Wyoming, Big Sky, Montana, and Scottsdale, Arizona. “It all starts with great architecture regardless of the market or region, and we have the very best talent that adapts well regardless of where the project is located to create timeless visions that our entire team then brings to life for the client. We do this in a visual delivery method that always leaves them in awe,” Payne explains.
Originally based in Whitefish, Montana, Payne Cole is fluent in the mountain town vernacular. The firm expanded with the primary office now in Missoula, and will soon open a third space in Park City. In addition to growing its physical footprint, Payne Cole recently established an internal interior design department that helps further streamline the custom home building process.
The intensity of Payne Cole’s growth is rivaled only by the excitement their team has for their work. They are an energetic team that can hold both operational and creative goals in mind and deliver beautiful homes that are uniquely appropriate to their environments. Cole sums up his goals, saying, “We want to be the very best at architecture and simultaneously completely re-shape the antiquated process that dominates our sector.” Payne adds, “Had we been handed a magic wand to fix the architectural and design world, we would have created the exact process that is now the Payne Cole story.”
