At Northern Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain Resort, skiing is more than a pastime; it’s the community’s lifeblood and origin story. The Humbird Hotel and Crow’s Bench, their newest and most boutique offerings, celebrate this historical reverence for the winter sport while beckoning guests to return to the mountain year-round. Architecturally, the hotel and restaurant engages with its site to draw visitors and nature in, with a form that tilts and bends to utilize every idyllic vista - one side soaring upwards towards the mountain, the other sloping down to Lake Pend Orielle.

Humbird’s signature warmth is thanks to its intrinsic, honest materiality due to its mass timber construction. We kept all of this exposed, adding wood paneling and feature walls amongst the board-formed concrete to create a glowing “lantern” appearance amongst the mountain’s snowy backdrop. We paid homage to the region’s roots by subtly incorporating alpine Swiss motifs and using quintessentially warm textiles, but kept things fresh by working closely with their brand design consultant. We partnered with the nearby historical society to curate and frame hundreds of unique archival photographs, each one showcasing the area’s age-old reverence for the outdoors. Pops of vivid colors throughout are a nod to 80’s ski fashion, nostalgia, and the dynamic vastness of skiiers against a neutral backdrop.