"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time has come to when those stones will be sacred because out hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, 'See! This our father did for us.'" - John Ruskin

In early spring of 2000, A&E Architects was asked to design multiple ranch buildings for the shared-area component of the Silver Bow Club called the Big Hole Ranch, as part of a 23 homestead planned unit development located on 2,000 beautiful high-mountain alpine and meadow acres bordered by three miles of the world famous Big Hole River, in South-central Montana. The focus of our efforts was to provide a quality fly-fishing/ranch community which captured the regional vernacular of a turn-of-the-century mountain ranch community found in early Montana.

The Big Hole Ranch acreage is broken down between a lower pasture site and an upper mountain alpine site with an elevation difference of 1,500 feet. The lower site accommodated the new construction of a 20,000 square foot guest lodge with two adjoining bunkhouses, a 22-stall horse barn and adjoining riding/roping arena, a variety of outbuildings for vehicle and hay storage, and a duplex for employee housing. The upper mountain site provided an opportunity fo a smaller alpine lodge and horse corral area which is accessible only by horseback or hiking.

There is a substantial native elk, bighorn sheep, and mule deer population which shares the land with the built-environment. Critical to the success of our design solution was the thoughtful consideration given to integrating road, community-based domestic water and sanitary systems infrastructure, and siting all new structures so as to become an "accessory to nature", through the in-depth study of land use patterns and biological influences of the indigenous wildlife, open site line protection and land form shielding, along with watershed, pond, and riparian protection. For the benefit of the owners and their future generations, the ranch and its wildlife are protected by a Conservation Easement held by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.