American Ski Resort: Architecture, Style, Experience by Margaret Supplee Smith (University of Oklahoma Press, 2013).
Rating: 10 (out of 10)
Margaret Supplee Smith’s in-depth look at the architecture of ski resort design over the past century in North America gives a lot of space to what Whistler Blackcomb brought to the mix.
Smith, professor of Art Emerita at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, spent a decade researching ski resorts for her study. The result is a treat to read.
Her detailed history begins in the 1930s as European expat alpine experts revamped inns and rustic camps on the East Coast to meet a growing interest in downhill skiing.
Sun Valley, “built almost overnight” in the remote Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho, became the first American destination ski resort in 1936, with movie stars like Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert adding some Hollywood buzz to the nascent PR machine.
Decades later Whistler Blackcomb introduced the concept of mult-purpose destination resorts where skiing was just a part of the action. Getting to that point is what Smith’s book is all about.
