It’s been a while since I’ve fully enjoyed myself during a New Year’s Eve celebration. Since I live in a young area of the city and work at a company filled with energetic twenty-somethings, there’s always been talk of the latest open bar special or New Year’s party. Don’t get me wrong – I love to go out and have a good time, but I just can’t justify the fact that I’m going to be spending over $100 just to get in some bar that I could go to any other weekend night for free. Once that idea was settled in my mind, I was beyond excited to hear that one of my best friends was offered a ski house for the week of New Year’s. Once I got the call, all I heard in my mind were the words "road trip", "Vermont", "skiing", "fireplace", and "ski village bars". Done and done.
Since I went to college in northern Vermont, I’ve always held a soft spot for the bitterly cold state. There’s just something about being tucked away in a chilly ski chalet in the high hills of Vermont and sipping wine by the fire. Needless to say, our New Year’s was a blast. Just a few friends around the overrated holiday were all I needed. That very trip inspired me to do a little research on swanky ski chalets partly for my blog and partly for my own real estate fantasy. After a little digging, I came across a gorgeous modern home in San Francisco that was designed by John Hans Ostwald, a European architect that was born in Berlin and educated in Austria. Shortly after World War II, Ostwald ventured to the United States and created a unique architectural portfolio like no other. Architect Walter Thomas Brooks once described Ostwald’s ingenious work and explained how the Vienna educated architect “married the Swiss chalet architecture with modern architecture”. Modern homes designed by Ostwald carry a unique and complex floor plan which often includes exposed beams, exaggerated wraparound decks, pyramidal roofs, spiral staircases, and freestanding fireplaces. Could you see yourself living in an Ostwald home?
