Projects

Ultra-Contemporary Utah Home with a Musical Centerpiece

This modern farmhouse — with its dedicated performance space — hits all the right notes. 

One of the most gratifying parts of a custom home project is the chance to put your priorities and ways-of-living front and center. So, for Neylan McBaine, the daughter of a Metropolitan Opera singer and a Juilliard-trained pianist herself, that meant shining a spotlight on music for her and her family. And that wasn’t just planning for a simple music room, but a full-scale performance and gathering space where they could host concerts, fundraisers, and recitals.

To deliver on this goal, their ultra-contemporary modern farmhouse — designed by Salt Lake City- and Los Angeles-based Sparano + Mooney Architecture — features a dedicated musical alcove. Set in the more public main floor section of their home, the space is large enough to welcome musicians, instruments, stands, etc., as well as a Steinway piano, but small enough to create a main stage-like feel (plus the very-welcomed fantastic acoustics) for when the family hosts these special events.

Not one to limit the artistry to the indoor spaces, McBaine made capturing the majesty of the home’s natural surroundings a goal as well. One of the project’s can’t-miss moments is a striking two-story wall of Marvin Ultimate windows, perfectly framing Utah’s Mount Olympus in the distance. The home is truly a showcase for harmony, both inside and out.

To learn more about this project’s well-orchestrated design and see its dramatic natural surroundings, watch the case study video below.

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Project Team

Design: Sparano + Mooney Architecture

Dealer: USI All Purpose Windows + Doors

Transcript: Neylan McBaine, Homeowner

There's nothing like live acoustic music in a small space. When we have a fundraiser or a private concert or when our kids are playing and we bring over an audience, we essentially just fill in this whole space. It's just a very live and vibrant environment for live music.

Setting the Stage 

We're in the Salt Lake Valley in the city of Holladay, technically, and the city of Holladay is right up against the Wasatch Mountains, up against Mount Olympus, specifically. Salt Lake Valley is kind of a series of canyons. On the east side of the valley here, you start with canyons that pioneers and all sorts of travelers came through when they first entered this part of the West. And then as you work your way down the mountain range, you get to the canyons where all the skiing happens.

My husband and I always had a dream of building a very contemporary home, and when we had this opportunity, we interviewed several architects, and we ended up going with a husband and wife team called Sparano + Mooney. They have offices here in Salt Lake and in Los Angeles, and they specialize in very contemporary designs.

The concept that we wanted to explore was a modern farmhouse, and it was very important to us that the house be positioned in a way that maximized the light.

Design in Tune 

One of the other main requests we made of our architects was that there was a designated music space. We have a seven-foot Steinway. We wanted to be able to have space for instruments and chairs, and music stands, and things like that. So the music area was one of the key considerations in designing the home. And we also wanted to set it apart from the rest of the living space so that it could feel kind of like a stage, but it needed to be connected to the main living elements. So one of the ways that we did that was we actually put wooden slats on the ceiling of that alcove to make it feel like it's separate and apart from the rest of the living space.

Public and Private Spaces 

We also wanted a public space and a private space. We wanted to have a space that was very conducive to having groups of people come in and enjoy music, but we also, of course, were raising three young daughters and we wanted to have our own space in the home. Sparano + Mooney Architecture took that idea and they actually created two separate masses that are stacked on top of each other, but shifted slightly. So the public space is the first floor and it is sort of rectangular. And then the private space is all upstairs, that's just our bedrooms, and sort of common area, hangout area, and so that really helps us feel like everything that's upstairs is just ours and off-limits to any of the public things that are happening downstairs.

Capturing the Natural Views 

I love the morning time, because these windows right here, they do face east, and as the sun is coming up, you can just see it so beautifully come up over the mountains and the light in the living room here changes minute by minute.

We wanted a double-story window to be able to showcase the big view of Mount Olympus. So the idea of entering the house and having the window be the centerpiece, that was very deliberate, and that was something that we started with from the very beginning.

We had Marvin windows in our previous home, so I was familiar with that brand, but it was our designer who was the one that requested Marvin. She'd worked with Marvin a lot, and she said, especially for the double-storey, big dramatic entrance, that Marvin was the one that would be able to provide those windows for us.

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The back exterior of a home surrounded by trees and featuring Marvin Ultimate Direct Glaze and Awning windows.