This Modern Cliff House Seamlessly Knits Into a Rocky Idaho Lakefront

Walls of glass, horizontal roof planes, and a natural material palette enable this expansive home to feel like an extension of a dramatic boulder-strewn landscape.

Text by

Lucy Wang

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"Constant ingenuity" was essential in the construction of the Cliff House, a contemporary, three-story residence that spanned seven years from design concept to completion due to a challenging waterfront location.

Located in Western Idaho, the Cliff House faces views of Payette Lake toward the south and west, while vast granite and dense forest flank the property to the north and east.

"The project site forced creativity from the start," says McCall Design and Planning, a local architecture practice with intimate knowledge of the property, having designed several buildings on the south end of the site over 20 years ago.

This time, the new property owners sought a contemporary residence on a northern parcel next to Payette Lake that, despite its seven-acre size, is largely unbuildable because of steep slopes and rock.

Surrounded by rugged beauty, the home was designed with a faceted exterior optimized for wraparound views unique in each room.

To meet the clients’ desire for easier lake access, the architects chose a low site and only began site work two years after a careful design process that saw multiple mock-ups, design options, and the acquisition of an easement from the State of Idaho for driveway access. A complicated foundation contributed to the lengthy four-year construction timeline.

The board-formed concrete, steel, and teak over a rainscreen system blend the building into the site.

A boulder integrated into the entrance foyer and large, triple-glazed windows immediately set the scene for indoor/outdoor living. The curved stairs lead up to the bedrooms.

"This design was all about capturing the beauty of the rocky site and the experience of Payette Lake," explain the architects. "How to incorporate the rock into the design, how to re-create the same peaceful feeling in a finished modern home that one felt on site pre-development was the big question."

The open-plan living areas feature rift sawn white-oak floors, teak ceilings, and plaster walls that provide a soft contrast to the hard steel-beams and lines.

The Great Room is anchored by a large granite fireplace crafted by James Hamblin, using locally quarried granite veneer.

A natural material palette comprising plaster walls, local rock, and timber surfaces throughout tie the 6,800-square-foot home into the landscape and imbue the interiors with a sense of warmth.

Flanked by walls of glass, the dining room features a Mimi London table and Holly Hunt dining chairs. The light fixture is by Lianne Gold for Ralph Pucci.

A view from the upper floor down the circular staircase to the game room below. The flaring, circular staircase was built using I-beams bent in Seattle.

A large piece of natural granite bedrock forms the backdrop to the game room, which is furnished with Round Iron Gear Table by Jerome Abel Segun and a Thayer Coggin 'Baxter' sofa. "This large element in the game room features a small bar area which is also the transition zone from the sophisticated finishes of the majority of the house to a mine shaft theme, as one travels back into the mechanical area along rough-cut bedrock walls," adds the firm.

The architects add: "We decided early on that defining the shape with large horizontal planes was necessary to give the home a sense of 'groundedness,' and this concept came back over and over as we made decision about which direction to run wood grain, how to layout out cabinetry pieces, fixture selections etc.—always going back to that long, linear concept."