Photo by Matthew Turley
A Tree House Grows in Sundance
New Yorker builds unlikely sanctuary for art and spirit
By Ann Wycoff
What makes a New York fashion executive build a tree house—in Utah, high enough to look a woodpecker in the eye—and then decorate such a cozy, rustic place with millions of dollars worth of art?
Buffy Birrittella says it all began with global warming. She was trying to get to sleep in her Sundance vacation home and had a realization.
“I had been coming here for 20 years and, all of a sudden, it was really, really hot—100 degrees in my bedroom at 2 a.m. with the fans on and windows open. I thought, ‘This is insane. No one ever needed air conditioning in the past,’” she said. “Then it occurred to me that I had this beautiful forest grove right here on my property, and if I built a little elevated gazebo, I could sleep outside in the trees.”
For 33 years, Birrittella has anchored herself in Sundance, once the summer gathering place of Ute Indians and now her own spiritual sanctuary far from the pulse of her high-profile life in Manhattan, where she is the executive vice president of women’s wear design and advertising at Polo Ralph Lauren.
“My vision started with the idea of a screened-in sleeping porch. Then one thing led to another as I realized, ‘What if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?’ Then the outdoor shower evolved into an indoor/outdoor and it quickly became a little house, albeit a tree house,” she explains.
She sought a designer who could create a retreat suspended in the forest and was drawn to work by maverick Jeffrey Cayle after she saw some of his projects, including a unique summer-dining pavilion in a Hamptons fern grove and an eco-conscious pool house for a Montana ranch property that graced the cover of The New York Times Magazine.
The soft-spoken Cayle conceptualized the tree house set into the steep slope of the land behind her main house. A pioneer of green design, Cayle used recycled building materials and reclaimed wood. He found a dilapidated sheep barn in Richfield, Utah, another in Wyoming, and bought old pickle barrels from California. Trestle wood from the railroad over the Great Salt Lake provided a floor.
“There’s so much salt content in that wood, it’s naturally fire retardant,” Birrittella says. “Jeffrey found many things, like the sinks, hardware, old glass, light fixtures, and hinges, from local salvage yards in American Fork, Utah, and in California. Some of it was the type of stuff that people would pay you to take away. But the pieces were old and wonderful.”
Hardly any nails were used in the construction of the tree house, as the team preferred pegs and tongue-and-groove. Cayle hired locals, specifically the Euclid Timber Frames team from Heber, and gave them freedom to show off their craftsmanship. “I would draw a picture and discuss it with them, then let them go to town,” Cayle explains.
“The railing on the deck alone is a work of art,” says Birrittella. “They had never done anything like this before; it was truly an artistic endeavor. Often, the doorbell would ring and it would be one of the builders with his wife, kids, his mother, and cousins, asking if they could please see the tree house. The pride was incredible.”
By the time the tree house was finished a year and a half later, Birrittella had accumulated antiques and Western pieces from across the country; the interior became a synthesis of Birrittella’s styles and passions. “Things found me, actually,” she says, smiling. “I wanted it to feel like it was an old cabin from the turn of the prior century. And when you go in there, you feel like you are going back in time.”
When she was a young journalist, two fortuitous meetings changed the course of Birrittella’s life and led her to Utah and Sundance. “As a fashion editor, I would do stories on celebrities with great style—that’s how I met both Bob and Ralph,” she says. “Bob” is Robert Redford, the heartthrob she interviewed after the release of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
And “Ralph” is the man whose fashion empire she has helped run since he hired her as a publicist and assistant in 1971. Now, she is Lauren’s right hand, and helping build his brand into a multimillion dollar success.
Birrittella’s fascination with design started early. “I was always in love with interior design. If my mother was alive, she would tell you—much to her chagrin—I was always re-doing her house.”
It was her career with Lauren that led her back to Redford in 1973. “After I went to work for Ralph, we did the men’s costumes for The Great Gatsby and I was reacquainted with Bob. He said, ‘Come on out to Utah.’ So I did,” Birrittella says. “He was prepping for All the President’s Men, so Woodward and Bernstein were here. It was a great time. Redford was an extraordinary host. He even taught me to horseback ride. Since then, Sundance has been my home.”
Birrittella bought one of the original Mandan Cottages at Sundance Resort, offered only to Redford’s friends. She found herself neighbors with French actress Nathalie Delon and newsman Tom Brokaw. Years later, she dreamt of owning a ski-in/ski-out home on the mountain, under the shadow of towering Mount Timpanogos. As they rode the chairlift on a bluebird ski day, a friend pointed to a property for sale just off the slopes. Birrittella fell in love with the house and won it in a bank auction in 1997.
Tree house visitors are mesmerized by the attention to detail and mélange of beautiful pieces. Each item has a story. “The antlers for the chandelier were on the side of the road in Montana. Then one of my pickers (antique spotters) in Indiana found all these old gas lanterns so we built the chandelier out of these recycled materials,” Birrittella said.
Cayle and Birrittella designed the kitchen around a pie safe she found at an antique show in Texas. “Pie safes like this one were built in the 1800s, and they sat on porches throughout the South and West. Women put their baked goods and pies inside these pressed-tin pieces whose holes allowed the food to cool and kept away varmints, pre-refrigeration,” says Birrittella.
Homage to Native Americans is throughout the house—solemn faces stare about the rooms in Edward Curtis photos, vintage Navajo rugs from the Shiprock Trading Post in Four Corners rest on the antique iron bed and floor, and a purple velvet Navajo children’s shirt with intricate silver-worked ornaments hangs on a tiny post.
“My love of the West and cabin-style design was jointly influenced by meeting Bob and working with Ralph,” Birrittella says. “I loved American Country antiques and was integrating them into my New York lifestyle. When Ralph and his wife, Ricky, bought their Colorado ranch in the early ‘80s, I started working on the cabins with local craftsmen in a new style: American Country meets America West. I spent lots of time in Santa Fe at the antique shows and galleries looking for Native American artifacts and rugs for their personal collection,” which later formed the basis for the designer’s Home collection.
Cayle enjoyed the challenge of the project and how it all came together in the end. “The room is compact yet still feels airy since you are up in the trees. And in the winter, it’s just heaven with the snow falling,” he said.
Birrittella says the best thing about the tree house is the rare sense of peace it gives her: “You can close the door and leave the modern world behind.”
Ann Wycoff is the lifestyle editor of VIV Magazine and the West Coast editor of Golf for Women. She co-wrote Small Bites, Big Nites, published in 2007, and is a screenwriter. She lives in Park City.
