Some neighbors hate it, but in Montana’s Paradise Valley, Ron Gompertz’s silo is his castle
To fully grasp the essence of entrepreneur Ron Gompertz’s Tower House in Paradise Valley, Montana, outside of Bozeman, it’s best to visit in the spring or fall. That’s when the state’s weather shows off its extremes, turning life in the four-story tower that flexes and creaks in the Montana wind into a visceral experience and creating the ultimate connection to the land. Says Gompertz, “The weather and clouds are always changing here, and that keeps me stimulated.” In a valley dotted with clichéd low-slung, log-cabin-inspired vacation homes, Gompertz went vertical to ensure he would never lack for views. The seven-year-old Tower House rises jauntily from an ancient riverbank and inhabits a slice of Montana’s big sky in much the same way as do the silent grain elevators that loom eerily over the outskirts of every Montana farm town. “They’re like ghosts, these silos. They’re these relics from another century,” says Gompertz, 53. “They’re out here standing by themselves, these lonely and abandoned structures in this windy environment. I find that appealing.”
Drawn by the dramatic Absaroka Mountains shooting high above the Yellowstone River, which courses through Paradise Valley, Gompertz found the “unsophisticated artsiness” of nearby Livingston appealing. The thought of having actors Jeff Bridges, Dennis Quaid, and his hero, Peter Fonda, as neighbors didn’t hurt either. “That they had decided to buy property and stay all these years—that said a lot about what they got out of this place,” he says.
Paradise Valley has been through a lot over the last few decades. In the 1970s, it became party central when scores of Hollywood types descended. Later, in the early 1990s, there was a resurgence of real-estate interest after the seminal fly-fishing film A River Runs Through It was filmed here. Still, there are...
Stevens’s original plans called for only three levels, but Gompertz urged him to go higher for a more dramatic statement. The architect gave in to Gompertz’s demands for a fourth floor, knowing that the home’s tiny 24-by-24-foot footprint would do little to affect the neighbors’ views. He used narrow wooden slats to carry the eye upward and fulfilled Gompertz’s unusual requests: building the fourth-floor mezzanine kitchen, for example, and the ladderlike stairway to the basement bedroom. The result is a cabin retreat that’s really more like an adult treehouse.
The Tower House was conceived as the ultimate bachelor pad escape from Gompertz’s hectic life in San Francisco. It was to be a place where he could enjoy downhill skiing at Big Sky and floating down the Yellowstone River, as well as a space that would nurture his creativity. (Gompertz has written two memoirs about his Christian/Jewish upbringing.) But as his business in California—importing high-quality, handcrafted European tile—began to run on autopilot, Gompertz moved into the tower full-time in 2001. During the intervening years, marriage and a baby convinced Gompertz to move to a more practical house about an hour away in Bozeman, where he also launched his newest endeavor, Eco Auto. The highly unorthodox car dealership in the heart of Montana’s ranch-and-pickup country sells electric cars and tiny Mercedes Smart cars.
When he moved to Bozeman, Gompertz put the Tower House on the market. There were plenty of interested buyers, but most wanted to tear down the house and build yet another outsize, modern log cabin. Frustrated, Gompertz decided to hold on to it.“I didn’t want to hear about anybody renovating it, or painting it, or tearing it down,” he says, explaining that the tower has now become a getaway for not only himself but also for his wife and daughter. “To my eye, it’s a piece of sculpture, and it needs that respect. Much like my new electric-car business, the locals might think I’m crazy, but at some point in the future it will be appreciated.”
It’s a good bet that Gompertz will never relinquish the keys to the house. There’s too much of him built into it. And despite some derision from neighbors—one refers to the tower as “Ron’s erection”—the entrepreneur, like his house, stands tall and defiant. To his mind, he’s carrying on the western tradition of pushing boundaries.
“What gets me off is being creative and doing things that have never been done before,” says Gompertz. “And if you’re going to be different, this is the place to do it.”
Comments (0)
Show/Hide commentsWrite comment
Show/Hide comment form