CCY Architects—one of the Rocky Mountain region’s leading architecture studios—is widely recognized for its award-winning work throughout the region and across the U.S. In an exploration of ten recent projects situated throughout the Rocky Mountain West, Connection: CCY Architects reveals the Colorado-based firm’s approach to its work, sharing the discoveries and opportunities that emerge with each project. From an internal, experiential perspective, to integration within particular environments, the pages within this book spotlight the firm’s five decades of collective understanding and continued curiosity.

Connection presents ten residences that demonstrate CCY Architect’s approach to design. Rooted to place and inspired by natural environments, the site-specific designs connect architecture with the environment. The book is illustrated with over 300 color photographs across ten award-winning residences. Diverse in scale, location, material, and form, each is designed in direct correlation with its environmental context. From remote stretches of nature, to the neighborhoods of Aspen, each site prompts new design responses. One notable project—the “Victorian Music Box”—is part-residence, part-performance space, reflecting the clients’ interest in classical music, using aluminum to create a perforated exterior with a pattern derived from Chopin’s Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op. 9, No. 2.

The monograph opens with a thoughtful foreword by University of Colorado professor, Rick Sommerfeld, and an introduction by CCY principal, John Cottle. The project presentations are accompanied by two essays—one that delves into the firm’s exploratory process, and the other illustrating the connections that architecture can inspire.

With sketches, drawings, and photographs of the design process, Connection provides access to the firm’s design process, appealing to architects and designers, as well as anyone interested in sophisticated architecture, design trends, and environmentally-conscious design.

About CCY Architects

CCY Architects is an Aspen-based architecture firm widely acclaimed for its place-based approach to architecture, and for its projects inspired by natural environments. The firm believes enduring architecture enhances community, elevates life experiences, and restores connectedness to the natural world. A regional and environmental interpretation of Modernism has guided the firm since its inception, linking people, nature, and community through inspired architecture. CCY’s work has been recognized with more than 150 regional, national, and international awards, including the AIA Western Mountain Region’s Architectural Firm of the Year in 2017.

In summer 2021, CCY’s project, Victorian Music Box, won the jury selection for the 2021 Architizer A+Awards in the Architecture +Façades category. The firm also received an honorable mention in The Architect’s Newspaper’s inaugural Best of Practice Awards, which highlights North American firms excelling at every level of the AEC industry. CCY was also included in the Casa Platform exhibition, concurrent to the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture, as part of PLATFORM’s 2021 Best International Houses awards program. 

Erik "Rick" Sommerfeld is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Colorado Denver, and the director of Colorado Building Workshop, the university's design-build program which he founded in 2009. With the Colorado Building Workshop, Rick has designed and built community projects across Colorado and New Mexico and, in collaboration with DesignBuildBLUFF, charitable homes in Southern Utah. Widely published, these projects have won many awards, including several national AIA design awards and the Architizer A+ Awards.