Tiny Town

Ski Resort Communities Turn to Miniature Solutions in a Dual Effort to Affordably House Employees and Satisfy an Ever-increasing Number of Visitors.

- Paul Tolme

It's no secret that rents are sky-high in ski towns, so when Aspen Skiing Company committed to more affordable employee housing, it turned to a small but growing trend sweeping mountain communities: tiny homes.

The resort erected six tiny homes at the Aspen Basalt Campground, about 20 miles from town, in 2016 as a pilot project and, due to their popularity, purchased another 34 in 2017. Each 300- and 400-square-foot energy-efficient home costs $100,000 to build. “I love it,” says Zac Dopson, a groomer at Buttermilk who rented a tiny home last winter. “As soon as I saw it, I wanted it.”

Each home features bamboo floors with radiant heat, solid wood cabinets, large double-paned windows, kitchens with a microwave, small oven and two stovetop burners, and a wall-mounted flat-screen TV beside a couch that doubles as a storage unit. Exterior walls are constructed of structurally insulated panels with six inches of insulation, and the roof is made from one piece of material for easy replacement (though it has a 25-year lifespan).