Even as summertime temperatures rise into the 90s, Matt Clafton is thinking a lot about winter weather.
Clafton, a senior vice president and regional manager for Panattoni Construction Inc. in Reno, is spurring his team to move quickly as they begin construction of a new mountainside lodge at Mount Rose Ski Area.
"We're in a mad dash to beat the weather," Clafton said last week. "We know we could get snow in June or July."
The builders are spurred, too, by the expectation of ski area executives that the lodge will be ready for use when the snow starts falling in earnest in December. Construction started in mid-June.
The 7,937-square-foot building was designed by BSA Architects, a San Francisco firm whose specialties include mountain resort projects.
Unlike many the exposed timber that's common in other mountain lodge projects, the Mount Rose project features an open, modern design with wide expanses of windows that overlook the mountains and meadows of northern Nevada. The exterior will be largely steel and glass.
The lodge is on the southeastern corner of the Slide Bowl base area (the former upper parking site) at Mount Rose. Its facilities will include kitchen facilities, a bar and a patio. Indoor seating will be available 115, plus 58 in the bar. The deck will have a capacity of 400.
Passive solar mechanisms in the design will boost the building's efficiencies, and three wind spires are expected to produce up to 30 percent of the electricity consumed in the lodge.
