The Hidden Bar: A Suncadia Speakeasy
Thirteen thousand square feet designed for a family that entertains at a scale most homes are never built for.
At that size, a home isn’t a single space — it’s a collection of environments that each need to hold their own character while reading as one property. This Suncadia retreat was built for a family that entertains at scale: large gatherings, weekend guests, events that run past midnight. The brief included a speakeasy, a dance floor, a bar, and a game room.
The challenge was building those entertainment environments without the home feeling like a venue. Each room needed its own identity and the ability to function as part of a residence — not a sequence of themed experiences discovered in a hallway.
One Home, Many Environments
The game room defines its zones without walls. Billiards occupies one quadrant, arcade another, card tables a third. The zones are marked by flooring material and furniture grouping — the room runs all three activities simultaneously without crowding, which is the test of a zone plan that actually works.
The speakeasy below grade has its own complete identity: bar, dance floor, lounge seating with custom banquettes. The materials shift as you descend from the main floor — heavier, darker, more velvet and lacquer. The descent is part of the experience.
The Work Begins With One Conversation
We hold a limited number of consultations each month and are selective about the projects we take on. If you’re ready to discuss yours, we’d like to hear about it.
The Challenge: Home First, Venue When Needed
The risk with a large entertainment-focused home is that each room tries too hard to be its own statement, and the property ends up reading as a sequence of themed experiences rather than a home. Speakeasy here, game room there, bar somewhere else — and none of it feels like it belongs to the same people.
The other challenge was lighting. A home of this scale runs on its entertainment programming. The lighting design had to shift the atmosphere of every room from daytime residence to evening entertainment without a structural change each time — requiring programmable solutions built into the architecture.
“The LED ceiling system is the feature most guests mention the morning after.”
How We Built It
LED ceiling panels were the architectural lighting decision. Not exposed LED strips, which read as commercial or trend-driven — panel systems embedded in ceiling coves that shift color temperature and intensity. The same room reads as a daytime living space and an evening gathering space, depending on the programming.
Gilded mirrors were installed as full-wall elements in the primary entertainment areas. At that scale, a mirror isn’t decorative — it doubles the effective volume of the room and makes the light sources part of the design. At night with the LED panel programming running, the room glows.
Materials for each zone were selected for their sensory weight: brick and wood paneling with integrated LED above grade, velvet and lacquer below. The material transition marks the shift in atmosphere so the architecture does what a human host would have to narrate.
Frequently Asked
The work in this portfolio is the standard we hold ourselves to on every project — not just the celebrated ones. We take on a limited number of engagements each year, which means the projects we commit to receive our full attention from the first conversation through the final installation. If you're considering a renovation, a new build, or a full redesign, tell us about your home. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit — and what working together would look like.Your home should stop you. Every time you walk in.
