Shop Talk Partner Website

WHEN TALENTED PROFESSIONALS TALK, WE LISTEN.

Admit it, you have an inquiring mind, and you want to know about the team designing your Park City dream home. We understand the inclination. so we decided to bring you Shop Talk, conversations with the talented pros designing, building, outfitting your homes and those who offer options for work spaces outside your home.

The Prospect Executive Suites

David James & Kelly Pfaff, Owners

The Prospect Executive Suites have embraced not only the beauty of Park City’s mountain town aesthetic, but the artistry and casual-yet-classy attitude of its community as well. One of the main reasons The Prospect’s owners, Kelly Pfaff and David James, were drawn to a place as inspiring as Park City is because they’re the kind of people who didn’t want to spend their working hours in uninspiring office spaces. Delivering on the promise of the ideal mountain town, The Prospect is your mountain office.

WHAT SERVICES DO YOU OFFER?
The Prospect Executive Suites offer an office community like no other in Park City. The immaculate and inviting space is mindfully decorated with fine art and furnishings, which sets the tone for business owners and their clients. Each office is fully furnished with all that you need to run your business. Each tenant has access to the conference room, shower and lockers, copy and print center, complimentary snacks and beverages, and a comfortable waiting room for clients. You don’t have to worry about paying for utilities or high-speed reliable wifi. The Prospect has that covered and more.

WHAT GEOGRAPHIC AREA ARE YOU IN?
We are located in the Prospector Area. This area has received much attention over the last few years. It’s the first business and residential neighborhood as you enter Park City from Interstate 40, and it is close to the restaurants, ski resort, shops, and trails while having the benefit of less tourist traffic. As a result of its prime location, the HOA has been taking steps to improve the area with new roads, sidewalks, lighting, landscape, and walkways. It’s also located next to the much-anticipated Park City Arts and Culture District that will be taking shape soon. This will be an incredible asset to the area for both businesses and patrons.

WHAT ARE THE KEYS TO HIGH-END PROPERTY MANAGEMENT?
The only secret we have to share about being high-end property managers is that we care. We try to do unto our business community as we would want to be done to us. For us, that means being approachable, reachable, helpful, problem-solvers, open to suggestions, and supportive. Our tenants’ success is of the utmost importance to us. Our goal is for them to be excited to come to work knowing that we have their backs and that we are ready to promote their businesses by word of mouth or with our social media platforms. We also try to make leasing from us easy. We are flexible to our clients’ business needs and offer month-to-month rates or long-term leases that are all-inclusive.

HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR FIELD CHANGING IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS?
With people moving to mountain towns and working remotely, we don’t see our business changing much in that we offer a wonderful place for people to tap into if working from home is unproductive, if their company requires a business location, and/or if you’re a person who needs a place to see clients. We cater to most needs.

HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOUR CLIENTS’ PRIVACY AND SECURITY?
Privacy and security for our clients is very important to us, especially for highly-regulated financial firms. Each office comes with its own mailbox in order for clients’ mail to go directly to them. We have a state-of-the-art alarm system with outside cameras and inside motion sensors. We recently updated our wifi cable to our own direct fiber connection, which provides advanced firewalls and security options.

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START?
Kelly: David and I both have a background and love for real estate. Whether it’s finding land or properties, designing a concept, or a building to sell or manage, we are always up for bringing something beautiful and functional, with integrity, to the area.

IF YOU WERE NOT IN PROPERTY MANAGEMENT WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING?
David: Property management is something we do because we want to. We’ve considered hiring people to manage our properties, but given our high expectations and desires, we prefer to be hands-on. That being said, we do have day jobs that keep us very busy. For me, I’m in construction management and retail development. With the demand for remodels and new homes in Park City, I’m staying very busy.

Kelly: I enjoy investing, flipping properties, and hard money lending. I’m also a busy mom!

WHAT IS SURE TO MAKE YOU LAUGH?
David: We are always up for a good laugh. I find humor in anything. What quickly comes to mind is a surprise snowball fight or a night out to Park City’s Annual Follies at the Egyptian Theatre, which, sadly, will take a break this year, along with many other special things, due to COVID-19.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?
David: Given we both enjoy warm weather, our favorite seasons are summer, followed by fall. Truly, we love them all, which is what brought us to Park City. It’s a year-round town full of outdoor activities and there’s never a dull moment. In fact, we are known to have some of our most productive meetings by the pool enjoying the warm weather, mountain views, and a peaceful setting. We also enjoy other recreational activities such as biking, boating, snow skiing, water skiing, and hiking.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT LIVING AND WORKING WHERE YOU DO?
Kelly: We can’t think of a better place to work if you value the “work hard, play hard” motto. You can wake up early, be in the office at 6 am, work a couple of hours until 8 am, and then hit the slopes for some fresh powder until lunch and be back in for a productive afternoon. Everything you need is within a five-mile radius of the Prospect Executive Suites – trails to hike and bike, two world-renowned ski resorts, and an array of places to dine and shop. Afterward, there is no need to go home to freshen up as we have a shower, locker room, and fresh towels to get you back to your office and working. It is one of the reasons why we say LOVE YOUR (work) LIFE, which to us means having balance in your life – enjoying and being efficient with work so that you can go out and LOVE LIFE.

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Elume Distinctive Lighting

Joe Ardovino, & Jen Brassey, Owners

Elume Distinctive Lighting is a boutique showroom that focuses on serving designers, builders, architects, and homeowners as an integral part of the design/build team. Elume is a winning team comprised of design-oriented lighting consultants who have the expertise to execute high-end projects in Park City. The award-winning showroom has a fresh approach with lights that excite and inspire!

What awards has Elume won?
Elume has won the ARTS Award for Best Lighting Showroom for the Western United States three times! Our passion for lighting is evident when you experience the showroom – and our love of lighting is contagious.

What can clients expect when working with Elume?
We love to get involved in the lighting discussion before construction gets very far. There are so many considerations – starting with architectural lighting all the way through to decorative fixtures. We love to see layers and layers of light that can be dimmed separately to create scenes, because you want a different lighting “scene” for entertaining than you do for cooking dinner or other activities.

How do people describe your work?
Our team is the most creative, which makes for a much more exciting project. We explore hundreds of vendors to create a unique look that perfectly complements the architecture and the homeowner. After all, the goal is not to light a house, but to illuminate a home!

What are your favorite lighting trends?
One thing we are loving now is mixing metals. It adds such an awesome dimension! The matchy-matchy rules are out the window and now we get to coordinate fixtures with mixed metals and have a lot more fun. The result is gorgeous, but also timeless – no one wants that home that looks “so 2020,” right?

What are the most important advances in lighting technology in recent years?
The most exciting advancement in the past decade has been LED lighting in decorative fixtures – the design capabilities are endless without having to consider thick wiring to chandelier arms and sockets. The light output comes from 1/8” diodes instead of 4” lightbulbs, and that allows a new range of forms – much more art-like. As lighting becomes more sculptural, we are also seeing fixtures spread out horizontally – forming more of a landscape of lighting instead of a center chandelier. LED has come a long way, but I predict much advancement in the next decade – hopefully perfecting the dimming capability and compatibility, which has been the big LED headache for the last few years!

What’s your favorite activity or sport?
This year, our family cabin in Idaho was our saving grace! The cabin is near the beautiful Palisades Reservoir, which is a 20-mile-long lake with minimal traffic compared to Utah lakes – so that is our waterskiing happy place! Not only was it a safe (and seemingly normal) place to escape to every weekend, it is stunningly gorgeous!

We are hoping to get in some fall golfing while waiting for the ski season to start – we have the Epic and the Mountain Collective and are hoping for great snow…and a complete ski season this year!

What places are on your travel bucket list?
Jen: In 2019, we went to New Zealand for a few weeks and had an amazing trip – truly magical! We have a son and daughter-in-law in Wellington, so we were able to travel around with them most of the time. When the world opens again, Australia is next, as we have a daughter in Sydney! We traveled to Italy and Croatia a few years ago and loved the culture. Joe loved France, so he’ll have to share that with me one day – and I loved Spain – so we have a few places on our bucket list right now. Our quick escape, though, is Cabo – we try to get down there a few times each year.

What is sure to make you laugh?
Jen: Kitty fail videos. We had our daughter’s two cats until they went on their trip to Australia, so we discovered our affection for cats and all their antics and foibles.

Joe: Actually, it doesn’t take much for us to laugh – it’s a lot easier to get through life with a good sense of humor!

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Silver Mountain Glass

Mike Wirthlin, Owner

Silver Mountain Glass is a small mountain-town glass company founded in 2007. Mike Wirthlin started the business after seeing a lot of potential in this area for growth and branching out into different areas of the glass industry. They started as an auto and small residential glass company, but quickly realized that there was a huge opportunity in the area for custom glass services. Silver Mountain Glass had been receiving calls for those services and had been referring them out for over a year. Ultimately, they decided to take the leap and started doing custom glass themselves. Silver Mountain Glass has grown exponentially since then. Some of their specialty items include custom shower design/installation, handrail systems, elevators, mirrors, and glass walls.

Wirthlin is the owner and president of SMG. He also considers himself an employee who loves both the hands-on side of installing and the challenging side of conceptual design ideas and field measures.

What areas do you serve?  
Based out of beautiful Park City, we service mainly the Wasatch back and Summit County and Wasatch County areas. 

What inspires you?
One-of-a-kind, in-house designs, new stylish products, and applications and simple creativity. 

What other specialties do you offer?
We are a full-service auto glass provider, with over 40 years of combined experience in all types of automotive glass. We are also a certified calibration shop. 

What projects are you most proud of?
There are several projects that I am super proud of. Some of my personal favorites are ones we have designed or when we worked closely with the contractors and homeowners to create a unique masterpiece.  

What words do people use to describe you and your work?
Beautiful custom installations. Stunning designs. Personal touch. Excellent customer service. 

What do you enjoy most about your line of work?
I enjoy the artistic side of glasswork. Seeing the final product and hard work come together is rewarding.

If you weren’t in your field what would you be doing?
Enjoying the great outdoors without one bar of phone service. The high country is my passion. 

If you could own any toy what would it be?
A yacht, so I could explore the ocean in style, fish, and experience the sea life and this beautiful place we call Earth. 

What do you enjoy most about living and working where you do?
I enjoy the Utah mountains and the four seasons here in Utah. I love the small-town feel and our long-time customer relations.  

Favorite trip you’ve ever taken?
To the Napali Coast in Hawaii. A long-time customer invited us to their beautiful home in Kauai. We had truly unbelievable adventures and experiences, the food was great, and amazing memories were made that will last a lifetime.