Dwell magazine is showcasing the Big Lake "cabin" of four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser and his wife, Kathy Chapoton -- but the trendy, modernist magazine doesn't focus on just any old Alaska cabin. This one, built by Buser over six years, is an architect-designed hillside abode on land the couple bought up after a wildfire in 1996 prompted a local sell-off.
Everything about the 2,450-square-foot house centers on the natural setting. "It was important to have every room look to Mount McKinley, which is the ultimate view in Alaska," says [architect Klaus] Mayer. To do so, the architects created a long, lean, L-shaped house. The blackened, local spruce cladding pays homage to the area's wildfire, while also mimicking a glacial erratic—a nonnative rock deposited by a moving glacier. The courtyard and part of the kitchen are slightly offset, following the lines of the site's hilltop topography, while the rest of the house points directly to Denali National Park and Mount McKinley.
Buser said he used dogsled runners to help move 800-pound glass doors into place. Read more: Modernist L-shaped charred cedar cabin in Alaska
And if you want to dream about something even fancier, there's a chalet for sale on Admiralty Island in Southeast. Asking price: $7.75 million. Neighbors: mostly bears.
Anchorage