SigMT

16 | SIGNATURE MONTANA DECADENT DESIGN can make you feel a certain way. I gravitate towards that." Wallis adds, "Shayne's ideas are fresh. She has a different perspective than I do, coming from a different generation. She opens my mind and keeps me guessing on new elements and things I wouldn't have thought of. But they work!" Evolving with the Times Montana's lure is no secret. Van says, "We live in a beautiful place, and we are not alone in thinking so. We have seen a large influx of people who want to call Montana home. We believe there is no such thing as the status quo, and if your community is not growing, it is most certainly dying. e challenge we face is to accommodate that growth with respectful and sensitive planning and design." e Bryan Group utilizes a model allowing them to follow a project to completion through every phase: land acquisition, design conception, and housing sales. Van says, "We're offering clients a stand-alone home, not a condo or multi-family living. We are also increasing density in Bozeman, so the city is not starting to sprawl which had been a primary goal of Bozeman city planning." Van says, "Staircases are an underappreciated transition from different levels and a way to create a light datum that connects the whole house. I enjoy creating stairways that float and allow that transparency of light to take place between the treads and create a visual connection." Here, four vertical timbers, each measuring 40+ feet, support a four-floor stairwell. "Being very resourceful with these two is a great way for us to always have our finger on the pulse of what's happening in our neck of the woods," says Wallis.

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