ABOUT
Sipes Architects is a unique firm in the Vail Valley that works closely with clients to envision custom designs and tailored renovations for homes, restaurants and hotels. Our team has a combined 70 years of experience in residential and commercial architecture, and our work is continuously inspired by our global travels and the natural mountain elements that surround us. We revere art, science, and the spirit of inspired design that helps to shape human experience. It’s your dream space, and Sipes Architects is eager to bring it to life.
VALUES
Every project with Sipes Architects is rooted in being true — to our ourselves, our surroundings, and to you. We value authenticity and looking at every project with fresh eyes. We work with our clients and take cues from the natural environment to make intentional progress toward refined results. Our sensibilities are modern in that we have a focus on simplicity in design and an emphasis on bringing the outside in. To be modern is to be mindful, and at the forefront of our process is a rich foundation of sustainability. We approach each project with an understanding of its regional and environmental impacts as well as the business, social and personal needs it must meet. We use natural materials to build in a way that is clean, logical and timeless. Our client’s goals are our guiding path and we always strive to provide unsurpassed personal service and delight our clients with design solutions.
ACTIVELY GREEN | Sipes Architects is an "Actively Green" certified Business through Walking Mountains Science Center. Through this program we hold ourselves accountable, and take steps to make our business as sustainable as possible. We audit our processes regularly to constantly find ways to improve.
1% FOR THE PLANET | As members, we donate 1% of gross sales each year to support the internationally respected brand in their efforts to help fund diverse environmental organizations.
PROCESS
As architects, we work side by side in concentrated and engaged dialogue with clients to understand their dreams. Before a project begins, we want you to feel supported by our knowledgeable and competent team, here to help you through every step of the process.
Together with you we dive into visioning and imagination — into the most exciting part of design. The firm includes 3D visualization into our approach, incorporating renderings to project possibilities and enable the delivery of predictable results. We then work closely with your contractor, to ensure the project fulfills its true potential. We look forward to that moment when you step into your new space and see the dream alive, smiling at every perfect detail that you helped decide.
We strive to make design a fun and astonishing process, and we deeply enjoy connecting with and working for our clients on a personal level. It’s our privilege to give form to your hopes and dreams.
At Sipes Architects, we strive to make good design affordable. We offer a range of delivery methods providing clients with unique and custom design consultation, where full-service documentation and construction monitoring isn’t required. We work with you to discover the range and level of services your unique project requires.
We approach each project, whether residential or commercial, new build or renovation, with a unique understanding of the clients’ visions, lifestyle, story, and budget.
TEAM
PRESS
Mountain Living
Getting to Net Zero and Beyond - the most sustainable energy is energy not used
Walking Mountains Science Center, located in Avon, Colorado, dreamed for a long time of addressing the community’s affordable housing crisis by providing housing to some of its educational staff. High on their priority list was to design the housing to net-zero annual energy (meaning the buildings use zero energy from the grid yearly).
This project shows how we helped them create affordable housing that is both beautiful and energy-neutral following simple guiding principles.
Vail Valley Home
Envisioning a condo remodel beyond its current layout can be tricky for an untrained eye. Fortunately, Todd Biekkola, partner at Sipes Architects, does it every day.
Biekkola and his husband purchased their two-bedroom condo in Singletree five years ago and lived in it for a while to truly understand its limitations -- and possibilities.
The main problem was an small and inefficient kitchen. At first, they considered simply remodeling the kitchen but realized they needed to update the entire condo so it looked cohesive...
Mountain Living
The Vail, Colorado, family vacation retreat transformed into a permanent home for the homeowners. "The changes to the kitchen were both dramatic and life changing," explains Brian Sipes of Sipes Architects. "We did a complete remodel to the home, with kitchen updates. There are scenic mountain views from built-in windows that bring warmth and natural light to the room." ...
Vail Valley Home
Sipes architects is a boutique firm that values authenticity, sustainability and a deep connection with each client. The team views every project with fresh eyes and takes care to artistically integrate nature with architectural design. Guided by their client’s goals, Sipes Architects strives to make building your dream home a fun process. They take time to deeply understand their clients’ visions, lifestyle, story and budget.
vail valley home: How do you integrate sustainability and the natural environment into your designs?
sipes architects: As architects and designers, we are responsible for
being stewards of the amazing environments we work in. We strive to create beautiful places that are in harmony with existing natural systems locally, regionally and globally...
Vail Valley Home
There is a Finnish word, "sisu," which entails passion and beauty and loosely translates to: extraordinary determination in the face of extreme adversity, and courage when the outcome seems unlikely. In English, we tend to call that grit. But whether you call it grit or sisu, Neil and Caroline Stewart had the stuff in spades.
In late 2017, the Stewarts purchased a home in Wildridge with fabulous views. They planned to renovate it in phases -- with new floors, bathrooms, windows, and kitchen -- while they lived in it.
...
Mountain Living - Vail Valley Spotlight
Sipes Architects is an award-winning Vail Valley architecture firm specializing in authentic, sustainable, and modern custom designs.
Sustainability is one of your core values at Sipes Architects. How do you implement sustainable principles into your practice?
As architects and designers, we are responsible to be stewards of the amazing environments we work in. We strive to create beautiful places that are in harmony with existing natural systems locally, regionally, and globally.
How do you find inspiration within/for each project?
We approach each project with an open mind and seek out the magical places and opportunities present in the site or existing home. We nurture these unique elements to inform and inspire the design solutions...
Vail Valley Home
You know when you walk into a home and it just feels right? That sense of relaxation doesn't happen by accident; it's the result of a consciously designed home.
"Design is one of the single things that most impacts people's lives," says Corey Lamothe, an agent at LIV Sotheby's International Realty.
Architects and designers call it visual clarity, and it involves intention, proportion and meaning.
Intentionality encompasses every detail, from ensuring that the home is located on the sire in the best ways for views and avoiding noise to the smallest details such as centering electrical outlets under windows, ...
Vail Valley Home
Over the years, a family home becomes more than a house. It seems to absorb the laughter, warmth and closeness of the family inhabiting it into its very walls. A walk through any room can bring back memories so striking it is as if you left it only moments ago. Yet, the cocoon has opened and life has changed...
Vail Valley Home
Most homeowners have heard that master bath renovations are “big ones” that pay off, but that may be more or less true, depending on your situation.
National stats
A national study in 2020 reported that an upscale, major kitchen remodel only nets about 54% of recouped costs, according to Remodeling’s 2020 Cost vs. Value Report. That means top-of-the- line appliances, hardwood floors and countertops may not be the way to go if you’re solely considering how they will increase your home...
Vail Valley Home
... “Rooflines are one of the most critical elements to a home’s personality,” says Brian Sipes, president of Sipes Architects. “They are key to the first impression and set the expectation for what
the home has to offer. Will it play nice with its neighbors or is it a rebel? Is it unassuming and stoic, or does it have a subtle wit — or a bit of sarcasm? No one roof type fits every site or every client, but it should reflect both.”
Mountain Living
Transforming a Mountain Vacation Home Into a Permanent Residence You took the plunge and moved to the mountains…Now what? Solutions for living permanently in your second home.
Retreating away to the mountains sounds like a cozy escape from the world, especially during these uncertain times. However, those who are looking to either purchase a new home or move into their existing mountain home have found the original design was meant for a different lifestyle. Vacation homes are about gathering together and being close with few outside distractions or pressures. A full-time home often includes options for work, school and alone time. If a mountain home is beginning to feel crowded, people are left with the option to either renovate, add on, or start from scratch. An architect can help envision options for adapting and renovating a home to fit your lifestyle...
Mountain Living
SIPES ARCHITECTS specializes in custom crafted new homes and reimagining existing homes, as well as hospitality and restaurant design.
How does curiosity and a sense of wonder inform your architectural designs?
WE ARE ALWAYS SEEKING new and innovative sources to inspire our designs. Whether from our travels, time in nature or a great meal, inspiration is everywhere—and we relish the organic growth of creative ideas.
How do you approach sustainability in your projects?
SUSTAINABILITY is a core value that we consider with each decision during the design process....
Vail Valley Home
Brian Sipes believes natural environment, architecture, ingrained in him; he learned and Associates in 1995, and then architecture helps shape the human experience. Through Sipes Architects in Minturn, he strives to create a sense of wonder and awe within clients as he accentuates natural surroundings through inspirational building designs.
In general, Sipes views the world as a “design problem,” and for him, design is everything — it’s the thread that weaves the landscaping and interior design together, resulting in a cohesive whole. It’s why, when people step into one of his commercial, sustainable residential or remodel projects, the building feels good.
“Architecture is so much more than the surface aesthetics,” Sipes says...
Vail Valley Home
Design work for this remodel project in aspen began in the fall of 2018. Construction started early in 2019 and the project was complete that June. The Sipes Architects team worked with High Country
Builders, the contractor, and the owners of the property were very instrumental with choosing details and interior selections.
“It was a home built in the 1970s, in a wonderful neighborhood, near the Roaring Fork River, surrounded by trees,” shares Todd Biekkola,
partner of Sipes Architects. “It had served as a rental home for several years and the owners were planning to move back to Aspen and wanted to update the interiors.”
The existing home had dark, heavy and outdated materials, Biekkola explains...
Vail Daily
Brian Sipes believes architecture helps shape the human experience. Through Sipes Architects in Minturn, he strives to create a sense of wonder and awe within clients as he accentuates natural surroundings through inspirational building designs.
In general, Sipes views the world as a “design problem,” and for him, design is everything — it’s the thread that weaves the natural environment, architecture, landscaping and interior design together, resulting in a cohesive whole. It’s why, when people step into one of his commercial, sustainable residential or remodel projects, the building feels good...
