Construction of the Clubhouse for Promontory’s Nicklaus course is slated to begin this spring. John Sather and Brent Harris from Swaback Partners of Scottsdale, Arizona, are the architects behind the project.
Promontory’s Painted Valley Golf Course, a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, has been hailed as one of the more challenging courses in Utah, but has been without its own clubhouse. That will soon change.
The Painted Valley course, nearly 8,000 yards long to counter its mountain elevation, features views of Park City and plays through both deep valleys and high meadows. After opening for play in 2007, it was named to the top three best new private courses by Golf Digest in 2008. The magazine has three times ranked Painted Valley on its Best Golf Courses in the State of Utah list, coming in at No. 2 in 2009-10 and No. 3 at 2011-12 and 2013-14. In 2014, the course also ranked 45th in Golfweek’s Best Residential Courses list.
Promontory Managing Director Rich Sonntag is excited about the architecture of the Nicklaus course Clubhouse. He said the building’s architects are proficient in incorporating the principles of organic architecture from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin School of Architecture.
"This clubhouse will complement the site because it doesn’t dominate the topography, it rises up out of it," Sonntag said. "It will take advantage to the fullest extent of the vistas looking both south and west across the back nine of the Nicklaus course."
Sather, who did much of the original land planning for Promontory, said the goal was not to create something large, but rather a clubhouse of great quality and special design. The clubhouse incorporates glass, contemporary-cut stone and steel and is informed by the work of sculptor Alexander Calder.
"As we’ve explored architecture at Promontory, we think it’s time to begin to weave in contemporary expressions of mountain architecture," Sather said. "Golf clubs are often noted as a big white house on the hill with bad food. We wanted to match the quality of the golf course with the architecture."
The interior design is done by Donna Vallone of Vallone Designs in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Sather said the interior of the building is meant to express a "new level of quality in golf," stating that the golf shop is more akin to a “golf boutique.”
The Clubhouse for the Nicklaus will be about 17,000 square feet and Sonntag said that with the use of glass in its design, it will serve to bring the outdoor environment inside and utilize the terrain’s low-sloping glacial moraines. He also expects the clubhouse to raise the bar for architecture both in Promontory and the Park City area.
"What we’ve seen is that as we build new facilities, people design and take architectural cues from what we’re doing and it sort of generates a new level of thinking," Sonntag said. "I expect [this] clubhouse will set a tone and quality standard for the homes that get built around here."
Sather said that working with Pivotal Group, Promontory’s owner, brings out his greatest talents, and added the company lets him explore design concepts that are outside of the norm.
"Contemporary architecture isn’t usually attributed to golf clubs. But, with the balance of architecture we have at Promontory, this really appeals to a wide range of residents who have a variety of tastes," Sather said.
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