Museum fundraisers can be staid affairs—all black gowns, gray suits, and polite conversation. Not so, however, when it comes to the Aspen Art Museum’s ArtCrush extravaganza, a rollicking three-day production that animates the Colorado resort community each summer. For the past nine years, megacollectors Amy and John Phelan have gotten the party started by hosting WineCrush, a ticketed tasting event, at their home—always a highlight of the festivities. Last July, Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner and Adam Weinberg, director of the Whitney Museum, could be seen mingling alongside artists Mickalene Thomas, Will Cotton, and Lorna Simpson, who was the year’s special artist honoree. Multiple courses and pairings later, the crowd took to the dance floor, where Amy shimmied through the sea of guests. She may have been dressed in black, but given that the blond beauty, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, has a personality as vibrant as the art she and her husband collect, she hardly needs a hot-pink frock to stand out.
Also present and partying away were architects David Fox and Chris Stone, who played no small role in setting the mood that evening, their Manhattan-based firm, Stonefox Architects, having renovated and decorated the house. With its soaring ceilings, crisp white rooms, and clean lines, the home is a phenomenal showcase for the Phelans’ trove, which includes statement-making pieces by the likes of Jenny Holzer, Marilyn Minter, Richard Prince, and Jeff Koons. One particularly prominent work is literally high-impact: the living room’s mirrored floor, by artist Walead Beshty, cracks a little bit more with every step. “David and Chris are incredible,” Amy says. “No matter how crazy or outrageous an idea, they would figure out how to make it work in the context of the house.”
It’s no surprise, then, that the residence is a showstopper. The Phelans—who split their time between Aspen, New York, London, and Palm Beach—are two of the biggest players in the local art scene. Their generous gifts not only helped fund the Aspen Art Museum’s year-old Shigeru Ban–designed building but also ensured that admission to it would be free for all. What might come as a shock, however, is the house’s past. When the Phelans bought the place in 2002, it was a murky mix of styles—Sun Belt midcentury, mountain chalet, 1980s contemporary, Arts and Crafts. “It had become confused,” Fox says. Still, the home was sufficiently spacious for entertaining large groups and boasted an expanse of windows that directly overlooked a nature preserve.
Initially the Phelans thought any dated details could easily be removed, like a bruised peel on a perfect banana, or otherwise spruced up. “We figured we’d just tweak a few things,” Amy recalls. Fox and Stone, however, knew the house called for more serious work; its accumulation of decorative flourishes yielded visual noise that wouldn’t feel any quieter under a fresh coat of paint. For the architects, the job represented not only a major opportunity but also an intriguing challenge, since zoning laws limited new construction on the site. As Fox explains, “If you were to tear it down, you would have to build a much smaller house.”
Because the Phelans were eager to get the job done, the architects moved to Aspen for 18 months, commuting to New York when necessary. Maintaining the home’s general footprint, massing, and layout, they deftly finessed what was there, replacing the multifaceted roofline with a simplified copper-shingle version and eliminating excessive skylights in the process. A new gabled entry gives the house the focal point it lacked, while the façade was stripped of yellowish timber siding and reclad with duskier mahogany and cedar.
“We sort of renovated as we went,” Amy says. “That allowed us to try things out. At one point, we saw that there was some hollowed-out terrain outside the bar, so we decided to put a wine cellar in there. Chris and David were always up for trying to make something work.”
Throughout the house the rooms were all completely reimagined as spare spaces more in keeping with art galleries than mountain homes, with a grand stair of glass, oak, and bronze. From a decorative standpoint, not having a strict game plan meant that Stone and Fox could play around—and play they did. A case in point is the dining room, where a fantastical chandelier by artist Donald Lipski and red silk-satin curtains are dramatically reflected in two bespoke black-glass tables. One bath was given a fabulous soaking tub and a spalike wall of river rocks; another nods to Art Deco with curvaceous built-ins. And the indoor pool, previously an awkward, irregular shape, is now a turquoise oval seemingly lifted from a midcentury Miami fantasy. “We took some risks and did some things that were kind of kooky,” Fox says. “But we definitely had fun doing it.”
Though the Phelans bit off more than they originally intended, they couldn’t be happier with the results. “It’s warm and inviting,” Amy says, “but it’s also the perfect backdrop for whatever art we want to display.” And ideal for entertaining. In the words of Aspen Art Museum director Heidi Zuckerman, “It’s the ultimate party house.”
The place is such a success that the Phelans have tapped Stone and Fox to build them a new residence from the ground up in Palm Beach. As in Aspen, the home will be a fun, luxurious take on modernism—erected with some leaps of faith along the way. But as Amy points out, one of her favorite things about working with Stone and Fox is that they never shy away from a challenge.
