Home of the Week: A Trio of Custom Utah Homes That Live in Quiet Harmony With the Desert Landscape
Southwest Utah is considered one of the country’s most beautiful regions, home to the famed Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.
For Hidden Rock Development Group’s Dallin Jolley and Anish Bhatia, the only thing missing was refined architecture and sophisticated, low-density developments that celebrated the natural landscape. Jolley grew up with the region’s national parks as his backyard and considers Utah to have some of the best outdoor adventure options in the country, if not the world. Washington County in southwest Utah is also one of the fastest-growing second-home markets in the country.
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Hidden Rock, which the duo founded in 2021, focuses almost exclusively on projects that allow the homeowner or guest to feel immersed in the natural environment and experience the landscape in an intimate way. The design duo saw a gap in the market for this growing region that’s a convergence point for several markets. It’s about five hours from L.A. and just an hour from Las Vegas, with easy flight connections to Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and beyond.
“The best way for people to experience an area is often through architectural expression,” Dallin Jolley tells Robb Report. “Creating a space that you can feel at home but also have it be integrated into the landscape. It’s different from what’s happening in southern Utah. We’re the anti-developer in a way where we’re much more experience-driven. As far as our development ethos, we let the land speak for itself, and we really bond to that in this project.”
Hidden Rock tapped renowned L.A. design firm Woods + Dangaran, who are also passionate about building alongside natural landscapes, to help design Moccasin Flats, a 44-acre development in southern Utah that consists of just three bespoke residences. The homes are situated 15 minutes outside of St. George, Utah, the closest and largest town, though you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re tucked away in a remote corner of the desert. That was, of course, by design.
The three homes are thoughtfully built into the unspoiled landscape, and each puts privacy at the forefront. Each property spans 14 acres, and the residences range from 8,300 to 8,700 square feet with five bedrooms and five or six bathrooms, depending on the home. They also have an elevator, gym, office, library, spa, sauna, an outdoor kitchen and dining area, fire pits, a large pool, and a plunge pool with temperature control.
“Many developers just pack houses together, but that’s the opposite of what a desert buyer wants,” Jolley says. “You want serenity, peace, space, and privacy, which is what led to the idea of the large 14-acre parcels.”
Woods + Dangaran designed the homes as horizontal structures with plaster walls to match the desert. They are monolithic in design and certainly don’t look like a traditional home from the front. Their elongated shapes create an organic visual contrast to the rocky mesa the rises behind the homes. Inside, the relaxed, fluid, and luxe interiors embrace a warm version of minimalism infused with the colors of the raw desert landscape while providing a tranquil and quiet living environment.
Open-plan living and entertaining spaces have an airy atmosphere thanks to 10-foot-high ceilings, atriums, skylights, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Glass-walled sky bridges connect each wing of the home. The homes are offered turnkey with furnishings from Woods + Dangaran, and each also comes with a two-bedroom, two-bathroom casita with a private entry for guests.
The homes are restorative and serene, while offering all the modern comforts and conveniences that today’s buyer wants, including spacious kitchens with top-of-the-line appliances and high-quality finishes and materials. The residences are also solar-enabled and oriented away from sunlight to lower energy consumption. The backyard views over the desert are sensational, and you feel as though you’re alone on your private piece of land.
Sustainability was also crucial in the design. The windowless facades, which face west, were designed to block the sun and capture the majority of the heat, while walls of floor-to-ceiling glass were placed on the east sides of the homes as it gets less harsh sunlight. Woods + Dangaran also used locally sourced materials to construct the home and intentionally limited the landscaping so it would feel as native to the desert as possible. And, careful not to disturb the land, the developers made use of existing arroyos for natural drainage.
“The site borders Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land on two sides of the property, so your views are extremely protected,” Bhatia says. “It’s near Sand Hollow State Park, which is one of the best in Utah with insane dunes for four-wheeling, dune buggies, motorcycle riding, and rock climbing.”
Homes start at $8.5 million and the project is aimed for a 2026 completion.
Click here for more photos of Moccasin Flats.
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