Mountain Resort Development, Western US, 1950s–1960s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Mountain Resort Development, Western US, 1950s–1960s — Archive & Atlas

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Mountain Resort Development, Western US, 1950s–1960s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1965

AA-2026-6E1606

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A developer's vision of leisure-class living emerges from a conifer forest at the base of a western mountain, where a handful of modernist structures in white and ochre sit among tall pines as though the future had simply landed there and begun unpacking. The buildings have the clean-lined optimism of their era—flat roofs, generous windows, white railings on outdoor decks—the kind of architecture that announced you had escaped the city not to rough it but to enjoy the same comfort at altitude, just with better views. Behind these pioneer cabins, mountains rise in the haze, untouched and indifferent to the pastel ambitions below. The scale of the forest dwarfs the development: what appears to be a carefully planned resort sits as a footnote in an immense green valley, a reminder that in the postwar boom, Americans were confident enough to believe you could improve on any landscape by adding modern construction. The whole scene captures the moment when mountain property stopped being something you mined or logged and became something you marketed to people who wanted to own a piece of the view.

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