Rosebrook Lodge | Bull Stockwell Allen

Bretton Woods’ 17,000 square foot Rosebrook Lodge perches on a mountainside overlooking New Hampshire’s celebrated Presidential Range, a series of White Mountain peaks including the State’s iconic 6,288-foot-high Mt. Washington. Completed in July 2020, the building’s blade-like form was informed by four constraints: the site’s rugged topography, a U.S. Forest Service boundary, existing skier traffic, and a new top-of-the-mountain gondola that was also a part of the project.

A curved floor-to-ceiling façade of wood and glass washes the interior with natural light. The simple, low-slope roof design eliminates icicles and sheds snow from all public-facing areas. A double-height entry serves as a beacon, welcoming guests arriving from the gondola and visible from the historic Mount Washington Hotel below. The lower level of the lodge contains the dramatic entry, a full-service restaurant, a café, guest restrooms, and the facility’s back-of-house.

The upper level contains food service and an open hall serving skiers in the wintertime and as a destination-based venue for weddings and special events. With the goal of bringing the outdoors in, the design team worked to ensure a seamless transition of timber, steel, stone, and glass, complementing the region’s natural beauty in a manner that feels equal parts rustic and refined.

The building draws on the region’s post-and-beam tradition, while creating a structure that is both fresh and contemporary. Upper and lower-level patios further anchor the building to the mountain, thereby blurring the boundary between nature and the man-made. To capture the site’s 180-degree views, Rosebrook incorporates an innovative wood and timber “curtain wall.” Comprised of timber ladders and aluminum-clad wood nail fin windows, the system minimizes construction costs while addressing the extreme wind, water, and temperature variations characteristic of a high-Alpine environment.

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