Steamboat Springs — Joe Patrick Robbins is celebrating his 40th anniversary as a Steamboat architect, and he sticks to a motto that has served him well for four decades. “Good design transcends all styles,” says Robbins, whose two-man firm includes architect Brian Moravcik. “We take pride in listening to our clients rather than our own vision.”

While it still has to be a good design that functions well, taking advantage of such things as sun, site and views, a house also has to be reflective of its owner, he adds.

After passing through a more Western phase, he says he’s now involved in more contemporary designs. He recently completed a large house on the top of Dakota Ridge, another in the Elk River Valley and another in Big Valley Ranch. While’s he’s dabbled in out-of-state projects, he’s focused “almost exclusively on Steamboat and Routt County mountain homes.”

“We’re intimately familiar with the unique attributes of our microclimate,” he says, adding that he limits his work load to six or so projects a year to give them the attention they deserve. He’s also happy with the clientele base he serves locally. “The clients here are great,” he says. “They’re very low key and down-home and aren’t building homes to show off. Their houses are built for good living.”

Second place

Bill Rangitsch, Steamboat Architectural Associates

The Sanctuary, Walton Creek, Catamount Ranch, Elkins Meadows, Elk River — Bill Rangitsch, of Steamboat Architectural Associates, has designed houses at all these marquee homesites and more in a 28-year career in the Yampa Valley. “I work with and listen to clients to make their project unique to them,” he says.

Founding the company in 1984 with partner Robert McHugh, Rangitsch’s firm now includes seven people, with projects running from high-end and mid-priced residential to infill commercial, including his office in Chief Plaza downtown. He also designed the Strings Music Pavilion, which he says “was a lot of fun and offered a lot of leeway in what we could do.”

As for working in Steamboat, he says it’s about as good as it gets. “We get very interesting sites and clients here,” he says. “In places like Aspen, everyone wants to out-do each other. Here, everything’s a lot more understated.”

Third place

Jan Kaminski, Mountain Architecture Design Group

Founded in 1985, with its principals practicing locally since 1978, Mountain Architecture Design Group, including partners Ed Becker and Jan Kaminski and intern architect Chancie Keenan, specializes in custom single-family residences. It also designs rehabilitation projects as clients forsake ground-up construction in favor of improving existing properties. “There’s definitely more of that going on these days,” Kaminski says. “People are finding deals on bank-owned properties and fixing them up how they like them.”

The company also specializes in historic preservation — refurbishing the Lyon Drug Store and Wild Horse Gallery buildings and structures at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp — as well as municipal and grant-funded projects. It’s currently working on a Housing and Urban Development-sponsored, eight-apartment project for Horizons Specialized Services. “The projects we like the most are the socially conscious ones,” Kaminski says. “I love doing something positive for the community.”