114 and 118 E Bleeker

In 1965, two identical two-story multi-family modern chalets were built at 114 and 118 East Bleeker Street, in the West End, but one block off Main Street. The truly dramatic overhang of the low pitched gable roof, the exposed rafters, pilotis, usable deep balconies, and central expanse of glass reflect modernism, but the decorative motifs on the balconies emphasize the continuing appeal of chalet imagery in ski-town Aspen.  The massive chimneys and piers flanking the ground floor (on 114) use a favorite Aspen building material of the time—moss stone.

Many of Aspen’s modern chalets were built in the West End, close to the Aspen Institute and its intellectual and cultural offerings. Urban lots in this established neighborhood fitted the compact modern chalets well, yet they still offered mountain views. The modern chalets added to the West End’s rich building mix, including Victorian cottages and Second Empire and Queen Anne mansions, as well as postwar traditional gabled chalets and classic flat-roofed modernist houses. Often two- and multiple-family structures, they also represent a shift in Aspen’s evolution as a vacation destination serving both winter and summer tourists.