Mystic Hills

Mystic Hills is a stilted cabin retreat in Hill City’s Black Hills—weathering-steel cladding and mining-era cribbing cues create resilient, low-impact architecture that honors the site’s past while looking forward.

Mystic Hills

Mystic Hills is a stilted cabin retreat in Hill City’s Black Hills—weathering-steel cladding and mining-era cribbing cues create resilient, low-impact architecture that honors the site’s past while looking forward.

Mystic Hills

Mystic Hills is a stilted cabin retreat in Hill City’s Black Hills—weathering-steel cladding and mining-era cribbing cues create resilient, low-impact architecture that honors the site’s past while looking forward.

Elevated resilience — architecture that learns from the land.

Set within the rugged terrain of the Black Hills, Mystic Hills responds to a site shaped by mining, floodways, and rock. The cabin rises on steel stilts, a direct nod to historic cribbing systems and a practical way to minimize ground disturbance while lifting the structure above seasonal flows. Elevation becomes both function and symbol: protection from a volatile landscape and a quiet acknowledgement of the region’s industrial history. The form stays spare and purposeful, allowing the structure, not stylistic flourishes, to carry the story.

Year _2025
Location _Hill City, SD
Renderings _NOMINN

Hill City

South Dakota — the heart of the Black Hills.

Hill City grew from the Black Hills mining rush into a small mountain town threaded by tourism, timber, and the arts. Set between trailheads, granite peaks, and storied corridors, it lives up to its “Heart of the Hills” name—close to places of deep cultural significance and the wild landscapes that define the region. That mix of working history and high country is the project’s backdrop. Mystic Hills doesn’t try to outshine it; it joins the chorus—lifting lightly, weathering honestly, and taking its cues from the ground beneath it.

Material honesty, evolving with time — weathering steel as memory.

The exterior is sheathed in rusted weathering steel, chosen for durability, low maintenance, and the way its patina deepens with the seasons. Instead of fighting the elements, the building accepts them—marking time, recording sun and storm, and echoing the working character of the hills. Large, intentional openings frame long views across the terrain while keeping the envelope disciplined. Inside and out, the palette is restrained so the landscape does the talking: raw, resilient, and beautiful in its imperfections.

Building for the floodplain — designing for a century of change

Located within an old mining encampment and an active floodway, Mystic Hills was engineered to endure. Working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, the team developed a design capable of withstanding a 100-year flood event without compromising the integrity of the surrounding terrain. The stilted foundation system—anchored in rock and elevated well above the floodplain—allows water to move naturally beneath the structure during extreme events. This minimal-impact approach reduces erosion, preserves vegetation, and keeps the building’s footprint light on the land. The result is resilience expressed through restraint: a cabin designed to weather both storm and time, honoring the site’s natural power while ensuring it remains a safe and enduring retreat for generations to come.

Renderings