Mountain Living’s 2010 “Most Responsible” Project of the Year Award has been bestowed upon “Headwater Camp”, a cabin located within the prestigious Yellowstone Club at Big Sky, Montana. This Dan Joseph Architects design was evaluated and selected based upon the utilization of Historic Architecture, respect for Cultural Heritage, outstanding Natural Beauty and the incorporation of Sustainable Design principals. The project is featured in Mountain Living’s March/April 2010 publication which is currently in circulation.

Dan Turvey, principal of Dan Joseph Architects, attended Montana State University to pursue his love of architecture, and his passion for the outdoors and related recreational opportunities has made Southwestern Montana his preferred location ever since.  “I had created and operated a large competitive bid-build commercial construction practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan,” says Turvey “ we had 200 plus employees at our height, and after fine tuning the organization, the lack of an ongoing challenge gave me pause and time to reconsider my career path.”

Turvey and his family moved to Whitefish, MT in 1991, and it was there while serving as an Owners Representative on a large school remodel and expansion project that he became eager to formally blend his construction experience and creative interest as an architect.  Not wanting to leave the state, Dan pursued his formal architectural education at MSU’s well respected Architecture program while relocating to Bozeman in 1992.

 Turvey approaches his craft with the mindset carefully balancing the needs of budget, programming and the sensitivities of place or location.  When asked about the artistic aspects of architecture, Turvey says, “It is important to remember that Architecture is an expression of Art rooted in technical competency.” 

Turvey likes to share with his clients that architecture is similar to music; in other words what would you like to hear or see?  “Let’s pick the vernacular and then talk about volume” Dan continues, “for instance we may talk about “Mountain Rustic”, but as such there is not a one size fits all approach to this vocabulary.  One client may be visualizing something that is close to say turn-of-the century (loud) and another may be thinking accents of rustic with perhaps more modern finishes (soft).  It’s all in the range of how one prefers to feel or hear his or hers particular preference, vocabulary or song.”

To continue along those lines Turvey further includes,” in my opinion there are three things that define great design:  Site Specificity, a Sense of Transparency and Expression of Structure; like a three legged stool the absence of any one leg and the project won’t stand up to curb-side scrutiny.”

“Lastly,” says Turvey, “It is important for me to feel a sense of place, to be inspired by the context of location; often times it can be the subtle little things of place that speak the loudest.  Think of it this way…a lot of people can play a piano, but how many can move you to tears.  Technical competency alone will not add value or interest in a built solution.