To say that Denis is an incredibly talented designer would be an understatement. Few home designers, in fact, are Gifted to that degree. Perhaps that’s why one recent guest wrote, in their review of Crescendo (our ski home), “Have sent the architectural plans to St Peter, so when I get to heaven he will already have a start on my dream chalet.”

Importantly, there is nothing cookie-cutter about a single home that Denis designs, which is obvious when merely perusing his portfolio. Less obvious, though, is just how much thought Denis puts into sizing-up the home’s plot: its ultimate available footprint, its typography, its location, and the surrounding community. With Crescendo, for example, Denis harmonized contemporary ingenuity/elegance with nature’s raw beauty. The home’s structure was intentionally engineered to follow the mountain’s natural contour, with decks that step right out onto the slopes at their expected levels. Also, while Denis may not be credited for creating the Monashee Mountains, in Crescendo he certainly should be credited for capturing it.