Glass walls allow the indoor and outdoor spaces to feel integrated.
Inside 3 Architecturally Significant Utah Homes Worth $8.5 Million – Robb Report
Quadratic design lab
Southwest Utah is considered one of the most beautiful regions in the country, home to the famous Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.
For Dalin Jolly and Anish Bhatia of Hidden Rock Development Group, the only thing missing is cutting-edge architecture and cutting-edge, low-density developments that celebrate the natural landscape. Jolly grew up with the region’s national parks as his backyard and considers Utah to have some of the best outdoor adventure options in the country, if not the world. Washington County in southwestern Utah is also one of the fastest growing second home markets in the country.
Hidden Rock, which the duo founded in 2021, focuses almost exclusively on projects that allow the homeowner or guest to feel immersed in the natural environment and experience the landscape in an intimate way. The design duo saw a gap in the market for this growing region which represents a meeting point for many markets. It’s about five hours from Los Angeles and just one hour from Las Vegas, with easy flights to Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and more.
“The best way for people to experience an area is often through architectural expression,” says Dallin Jolly. Rob reports. “Creating a space that you can feel like home but that you can also integrate into the landscape. It’s different than what happens in southern Utah. We’re anti-developers in a way where we’re more experience-driven. In terms of our development ethos, we let the land speak for itself; And we’re really committing to that on this project.
A bedroom featuring a muted desert palette.
Hidden Rock tapped renowned Los Angeles design firm Woods + Dangaran, which also has a passion for building alongside landscape, to help design Moccasin Flats, a 44-acre development in southern Utah consisting of just three custom residences. The homes are located 15 minutes from St. George, Utah, the closest and largest city, although you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s in a remote corner of the desert. This was of course by design.
The three homes are thoughtfully built amid pristine landscapes, each putting privacy at the forefront. Each property spans 14 acres, and residences range from 8,300 to 8,700 square feet with five bedrooms and five or six bathrooms, depending on the home. They also have an elevator, gym, library, library, spa, sauna, outdoor kitchen, dining area, fire pits, and a large pool and plunge pool with temperature control.
Each of the three houses has a monolithic facade.
“A lot of developers are clumping homes together, but that’s the opposite of what desert buyers want,” Jolly says. “You want serenity, peace, space and privacy, which is what led to the idea of the large 14-acre lots.”
Woods + Dangaran designed the homes as horizontal frames with plaster walls to match the desert. It is homogeneous in design and certainly does not look like a traditional house from the front. Their elongated forms create an organic visual contrast with the rocky flats that rise behind the houses. Inside, the comfortable, smooth and luxurious interiors embrace a warm version of simplicity blended with the colors of the raw desert landscape while providing a calm and tranquil living environment.
Outdoor pool area.
The open-plan living and entertaining spaces have an airy atmosphere thanks to 10-foot ceilings, patios, skylights and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Glass-walled sky bridges connect each wing of the house. The prefabricated homes are offered with furnishings from Woods + Dangaran, and each also comes with two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a private guest entrance.
The homes are renovated and quiet, while offering all the modern amenities today’s buyer wants, including spacious kitchens with top-of-the-line appliances and high-quality finishes and materials. The residences are also solar-powered and oriented away from sunlight to reduce energy consumption. The backyard views of the desert are dramatic, and you feel as if you are alone on your own plot of land.
Glass-walled sky bridges connect the public and private wings of the houses.
Sustainability was also crucial to the design. The windowless facades, facing west, are designed to block out sunlight and capture most of the heat, while walls of floor-to-ceiling glass are placed on the eastern sides of the houses so they are not exposed to the harsh rays of the sun. Woods + Dangaran also used locally sourced materials to build the house and deliberately pared down the landscaping so it feels as desert-like as possible. Careful not to disturb the land, the developers used the existing arroyos for natural drainage.
“The site borders Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land on both sides of the property, so your views are very protected,” says Bhatia. “It’s close to Sand Hollow State Park, which is one of the best parks in Utah with crazy sand dunes for four-wheelers, dune buggies, motorcycle riding, and rock climbing.”
Home prices start at $8.5 million and the project aims to be completed in 2026.
Click here for more photos of Moccasin Flats.
