When an adventure-loving couple decided to build a second home in the mountains for hosting friends, grown children, and—someday— grandchildren, they enlisted Californiabased Studio Bergtraun Architects to design it on a steep site in the Sierra Nevadas near Lake Tahoe. The firm took cues from the owners’ active, family-focused lifestyle to create a highly customized house on a challenging terrain.

Situated on a 23-degree slope that receives some of the region’s heaviest snows, the steelframe structure’s poured-in-place concrete-mat slab is pinned to the hill’s underlying granite. Lead architect Alex Bergtraun undertook a considerable study of the steep site to create a driveway with a less than 5 percent incline that would allow the clients to pull in easily and, after a long day of skiing, enter the mudroom without having to navigate stairs.