Luxury Residences & Club Expansion

The expansion of the iconic Talisker Club Tower at Empire Pass represented a unique and formidable challenge: seamlessly integrating a new collection of luxury residences into an active, high-end private club. The project demanded a sophisticated building envelope featuring a complex blend of cedar shake, copper, and standing seam metal. Success required more than just construction excellence; it demanded a masterful approach to logistics, with complex staging, phased sequencing, and a zero-impact mandate on the club’s discerning, active membership.

Big-D Construction brought Viotell into the project team in the earliest stages, relying on our proven expertise in managing complex, mixed-scope envelope packages within live, sensitive environments. Through a deeply collaborative partnership, we provided critical value engineering for the roof assemblies, designed streamlined routing for integrated systems like snowmelt, and meticulously coordinated with all key trades. Our role was pivotal in navigating the project’s intricate demands, delivering detail-rich finishes with the uncompromising quality expected at a world-class destination. The result is a flawlessly integrated residential lodge that has garnered significant market success and industry recognition, standing as a testament to what is possible when trust, expertise, and precision converge.

Part 1. The Vision: Evolving an Icon

The Aspiration: Enhancing a Premier Mountain Club

Talisker Club in Park City is not merely a property; it is a curated lifestyle experience, representing the pinnacle of private, four-season mountain living. At its heart lies the Tower Club in Empire Pass, a refined and beloved mountain lodge that has long served as a central hub for members. The vision for the expansion was born from a desire to enhance this iconic location, adding a new, exclusive residential component that would offer unparalleled ski-in/ski-out living.

The goal was to create The Residences at The Tower—16 luxury condominiums that would feel less like an addition and more like a natural, seamless extension of the existing club. This was a project of integration, not just construction. The new structure needed to physically and aesthetically connect to the active Tower Club, allowing new residents to flow effortlessly into the club’s expanded amenities, which included a new full-service Day Spa, Wildstar Kids Camp, Fitness Center, and a renewed pool pavilion and Ski Beach. The architectural philosophy demanded that the new building honor the established “mountain modern” aesthetic, ensuring that this significant expansion would feel as though it had always been a part of the original master plan.

Part 2: The Challenge: A High-Wire Act of Construction

This project’s complexity extended far beyond a typical luxury build. Its success was contingent on mastering three distinct and interwoven challenges: the intricate architectural detailing, the immense logistical pressure of a live environment, and the technical demands of highly integrated building systems.

Architectural Complexity: A Symphony of Materials

The architectural vision called for a rich and varied material palette for the building’s exterior, designed to create textural depth and visual interest. This was not a monolithic design; it was a complex composition of:

• Traditional Cedar Shake: Providing a classic, rustic mountain feel, cedar requires specialized installation techniques to ensure proper weathering and longevity.
• Timeless Architectural Copper: Used for accents, flashing, and feature elements, copper is a soft, malleable metal that demands master-level craftsmanship to shape and solder into a perfect, watertight finish.
• Modern Standing Seam Metal: Offering clean lines and proven durability, this system required precise fabrication and installation to achieve the crisp, modern aesthetic desired.

The primary challenge was not just installing these materials individually, but flawlessly integrating them at dozens of transition points across the multi-level structure. Each material expands and contracts at a different rate, requiring highly engineered details to prevent failure over time. Every seam where cedar met copper or copper met steel had to be both aesthetically perfect and functionally infallible.

Logistical Complexity: The Live Environment

The most significant hurdle was the project’s location: directly attached to the active, fully operational Tower Club. The club’s high-paying members were still using the facilities daily, and the mandate was to ensure the construction had zero negative impact on their experience. This created a logistical gauntlet:

• Zero-Impact Staging: All material staging, crane operations, and crew access had to be confined to an extremely tight footprint, meticulously planned to never impede member access, parking, or views.
• Phased Sequencing: The work had to be performed in carefully orchestrated phases to align with the club’s operational schedule. This meant coordinating work around high-traffic seasons, club events, and daily hours of operation, often requiring non-traditional work schedules.
• Noise and Debris Mitigation: A rigorous protocol was in place for controlling construction noise and ensuring the site was impeccably clean at the end of every single workday to maintain the luxury ambiance of the club.

Technical Complexity: Integrated Systems

Modern luxury mountain homes require sophisticated systems to be built directly into the structure, and the envelope contractor is at the center of this integration. The most significant technical challenge was the extensive snowmelt system. This was not a simple matter of laying down heat cables; it involved routing a complex network of hydronic tubing or electrical conduits within the roof assemblies of three different material types. This required extremely close coordination with MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) trades to ensure the systems were placed perfectly before the roof was sealed, all while guaranteeing that the thousands of attachment points and penetrations did not compromise the envelope’s absolute watertight integrity.

Part 3: Our Approach: From Strategic Partnership to Technical Mastery

To navigate this intricate web of challenges, Big-D Construction needed a partner who was not just an installer, but a proactive problem-solver and logistical expert. They brought Viotell into the project team early in the pre-construction phase to leverage our specialized expertise.

The Strategic Partnership with Big-D Construction

Our longstanding, trust-based relationship with Big-D was the foundation for a highly effective and collaborative process. Being engaged early allowed us to move beyond a reactive role and become a key consultant in the project’s planning. We worked hand-in-hand with the Big-D team and the architects to analyze the complex details, identify potential issues, and engineer robust, buildable solutions before they could impact the schedule or budget.

Pre-Construction & Value Engineering

During the critical pre-construction phase, our team provided significant value. We closely analyzed the roof assemblies and proposed several value-engineering options. This included refining the underlayment specifications to provide enhanced ice-damming protection at a better value, and redesigning certain copper flashing details to reduce material waste and fabrication time without altering the architectural intent. We also led the effort in mapping out the most efficient and least disruptive routing for the extensive snowmelt system, a process that streamlined coordination between our teams and the MEP contractors.

Mastery of Mixed Materials

Viotell’s in-house expertise across all three specified materials—cedar, copper, and standing seam metal—was a major asset to the project. It provided Big-D with a single point of contact and responsibility for the entire building envelope. This eliminated the logistical nightmare of managing and sequencing multiple niche contractors, ensuring that all transitions were designed and executed by a single, cohesive team with a holistic understanding of how the systems needed to work together.

Part 4: Bringing the Vision to Life: A Masterclass in Execution

With a robust plan in place, our on-site team turned to the formidable task of execution, focusing on a disciplined approach to phasing, coordination, and craftsmanship.

Phased Sequencing & Logistical Choreography

The on-site installation was a masterclass in logistical planning. Our project manager worked daily with the club’s management and Big-D’s superintendents to coordinate work schedules. Our crews often began at dawn to complete louder tasks before members arrived, and meticulously cleaned and secured the site each afternoon to render it pristine. The work was sequenced elevation by elevation, phase by phase, in a carefully choreographed dance that allowed the club to operate with what appeared to be seamless normalcy.

Cross-Trade Coordination

Our commitment to responsiveness was on display daily. Our foreman held “toolbox talks” each morning with the teams from MEP and other finish trades. This constant communication was critical. For example, our roofing team would prepare an area but not seal it until the snowmelt technicians had laid and tested their lines, and we had jointly inspected and documented the installation. This level of integrated teamwork was essential to achieving the “zero rework” objective.

Craftsmanship & The Pursuit of Perfection

On a project of this caliber, the final quality comes down to the skill and pride of the installers. Our team of craftsmen understood the stakes. They meticulously cut and fitted each cedar shake, hand-soldered every copper seam, and ensured every metal panel was perfectly aligned. The transition points, the most challenging aspects of the project, were treated as works of art. This unwavering focus on detail and the refusal to accept anything less than perfection ensured the final product met the highest standards of luxury construction.

Part 5: Vindication and Value: A Seamless Success

The successful completion of The Residences at The Tower resulted in a flawless and valuable enhancement to the Talisker Club. Viotell delivered a high-performance building envelope that is both a protective shield and a stunning architectural statement, seamlessly blending the new with the existing.

Technical Deep Dive: The Art of Integrating Dissimilar Materials

A hallmark of this project’s success lies in the execution of its material transitions. Integrating a soft, organic material like cedar with a malleable metal like copper and a rigid, formed metal panel is a significant technical challenge. Our solution involved a multi-layered approach. At each transition, we engineered a concealed, continuous waterproofing membrane that formed the true weather barrier. The visible materials—the copper flashing expertly lapped over the standing seam panel, the precisely cut cedar shake terminating into a copper receiver—were then layered on top. This “belt-and-suspenders” approach, combined with custom-fabricated transition pieces that accounted for the differing expansion and contraction rates of each material, guarantees a durable, watertight seal that is also aesthetically perfect.

Market Validation & Industry Prestige

The project’s success was validated by both the market and the media.

• Featured in Utah Construction & Design Magazine: The project’s architectural and construction excellence was recognized with a feature in this prestigious regional publication, highlighting the quality of the finished product.
• 80% Pre-Sold Milestone: The market responded with overwhelming confidence. The fact that over 80% of the residences, valued at over $60 million, were sold before completion is a powerful testament to the project’s desirability and the perceived quality of its construction.
• Recognition in Bloomberg: The project contributes to the overall prestige of the Talisker Club, which has been recognized as one of America’s top vacation havens, underscoring the world-class environment that this new residential offering is now a part of.

Conclusion: A Legacy of Quality and Collaboration

The Residences at The Tower was more than a construction project; it was a complex logistical and collaborative endeavor. It required a deep understanding of materials, a respect for the live environment, and an unwavering commitment to quality. Viotell is proud to have served as a pivotal partner, leveraging our specialized expertise to help navigate the project’s unique challenges. By working in concert with Big-D Construction, we helped deliver a seamless, beautiful, and highly valuable addition to one of North America’s most iconic private clubs, creating a lasting legacy of quality and craftsmanship.

“The Residences at The Tower are portrayed as “a modern masterpiece… exuding timeless elegance and sophistication with top-of-the-line finishes,” highlighting the meticulous attention to detail in both design and construction.”

– TownLift, Park City News