• Stunning location which commands brilliant views across Aspen’s mountains.
• Spacious, well designed suites give you lots of space to spread out in.
• Heated outdoor swimming pool and whirlpool.
• Plato-enjoy the views in this eclectic restaurant and dine in a peace after a great day’s skiing.
• Hefner lounge -enjoy a drink by the fireplace.
• Hosts guests attending the famous Aspen Music Festival and Food & Wine Festival.
The Whole Story
Aspen Meadows Resort
Bauhaus in the snow: simple streamlined architecture, big wide spaces unencumbered by superfluous decoration, floor to ceiling windows that frame idyllic mountain views, every design detail conceived as a partner of function... usually the tenets of Bauhaus teaching are a utopian ideal, but at Aspen Meadows Resort, the Bauhaus model comes closer to being realized without compromise than anywhere else on this planet where there is snow.
Located in Aspen’s historic west end, The Meadows is close enough to nip in for dinner or shopping, but far away enough for you to be conscious always of why Aspen is such a magnet – namely the beauty of the mountains and the superb quality of the skiing. Staying here is an experience completely unlike that of any ski hotel I have been to. On the one hand the layout is campus-like: pathways link one pavilion to the next, meandering past works of contemporary art. But there is also a futuristic, surreal quality to the place. Perhaps it is the softly spoken staff, the lack of noise, the pristine cleanliness, or the electric cars that give Meadows a Man From U.N.C.L.E. quality. This rarefied 'I Spy' atmosphere is due to the fact that Aspen Meadows is part of the Aspen Institute – the broad-based think-tank founded by Paepcke that counts some of the world's most influential people on its board. At different times of the year you may find George Bush Sr. or Bill Koch, statesmen or captains of industry staying in rooms otherwise occupied by powder hounds. For despite Aspen's ritzy reputation, this is also America's premier ski resort. And that's not because there is an impressive new Prada shop on Galena Street, but because Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass offer a choice and a lack of crowds that cannot easily be matched elsewhere. Forget the private jets, the big-city real estate prices, the chichi restaurants – what really counts is that, bar Whistler, Snowmass has more vertical than any other ski resort in North America.
The Bauhaus school in Weimar Germany was the powerhouse of modernism. Breuer, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and their peers spearheaded a movement founded on the conviction that architecture and design could help create a better life. The Bauhaus approach to town planning was to group buildings together in dense configuration, so that the surrounding space could be devoted to parks, trees and recreational facilities. Bauhaus professors, however, generally failed to anticipate the mindset of all the property developers who have subsequently used that leftover space to put up more buildings. At Aspen Meadows Resort, this was not the case. Its hundred-odd rooms are set in a forty-acre park of meandering streams, footpaths, wooden bridges and ponds, and all in a location that commands an impressive view of Aspen's ski mountains. Throughout the complex, inside and out, the emphasis is on space. The rooms, by ordinary hotel standards, are huge. In fact they are apartments, each and every one of them, with a separate bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and study area. Entire walls of glass bring the mountains into your room and even in the darkest winter months an impressive amount of daylight is reflected off the snow into the sand-and-white interior.
The predominant architectural heritage of Aspen expresses its origins as a mining settlement, and most of the more elaborate accommodation in town offers rather dark and plush Victorian interiors. This may be historically sympathetic, but frankly I think the natural beauty of the area should take priority. In the architecture of Aspen Meadows, it does. In any case, in a resort filled with Prada, Gucci, Chanel and Christian Dior boutiques, not to mention an airport stacked with gleaming private jets, pursuing a Victorian mining town aesthetic seems incongruous if not bizarre.
It's no surprise to discover that the founder of Aspen Meadows was more concerned with inventing a dynamic and forward-looking cultural centre than preserving a historic town.
The vision Chicago industrialist Walter Paepcke had for Aspen was of a place where the world's greatest thinkers, artists and leaders would gather and be inspired by the magnificent nature surrounding them. He hired Bauhaus-trained Austrian architect Herbert Bayer to make his dream a three-dimensional reality. In the end, Bayer didn't have as much of an influence on the town as his patron would have liked, but at Aspen Meadows Resort he certainly achieved most of the loftiest of Bauhaus ideals.
The Rooms
There are 98 spacious guest suites. Each suite has a king bed or two queen sized beds, a study area, microwave, fridge, wet bar and wireless internet access.
The suites are spacious and relaxing with floor to ceiling windows with stunning views of the mountains and the Roaring Fork River. The unique Bauhaus design captures the colours and light from sunrise and sunset that reflects into the guest rooms.
All rooms are recently renovated to include new carpet and tiling, new sleeper sofas, bedding and LCD flat screen television.
Junior Suites - includes a comfortable living area with a sofa and chairs, as well as a separate sleeping area king or two queen beds.
1 or 2-Bedroom Deluxe Suites are larger again with separate bedrooms.