PRESS RELEASE: F9 Productions’ Level One Residence Wins Bronze at the 2026 International Architecture & Design Awards
Longmont, Colorado — F9 Productions Inc. is proud to announce that Level One, a 5,620-square-foot custom residence in Boulder, Colorado, has been named a Bronze Winner for Private Residence & Custom Home Design at the 2026 International Architecture & Design Awards (IADA).
The award recognizes Level One in the Completed / Built / Professional category and makes it the third F9 Productions project to receive international design recognition.
Completed in early 2023 for a family of four, Level One sits on a steep half-acre site at the base of Boulder’s iconic Flatirons. The five-bedroom residence combines technical precision and energy-conscious design with an unusually playful approach to family life.
“Level One represents what can happen when a client is willing to push beyond the conventional idea of what a house should be,” said Alex Gore, Co-Founder and Principal Architect of F9 Productions and Architect/Designer for the project. “This is a highly technical building, but the technical complexity was never supposed to be the story. The story is a family living, playing, and spending time together in a house designed specifically around them.”
At the heart of the home is a central vertical circulation core combining a staircase, slide, and skylight. The public wing revolves around an expansive kitchen island connecting the living, dining, and recreational spaces. An indoor pool, trampoline area, steam and sauna room, and large sliding glass doors further blur the traditional boundaries between recreation, gathering, and everyday domestic life.
Behind that sense of effortlessness is significant architectural and structural complexity.
The steep site and exposure to winds of up to 165 miles per hour required a foundation supported by more than 70 caissons extending approximately 30 feet into the ground. Above the concrete lower level, a lightweight “glass lantern” incorporates roughly a quarter-mile of steel framing supporting approximately 3,000 square feet of triple-pane glazing. The result provides panoramic views of the surrounding Colorado landscape while responding to the demanding environmental conditions of the site.
Sustainability and building performance were integrated into the architecture from the beginning. Continuous rigid insulation wraps the foundations, walls, and cantilevers to reduce thermal bridging. Triple-glazed windows, air-source heat pumps powering radiant floors, and a rooftop solar array contribute to the home’s energy performance, while exposed plywood and weathering Corten steel provide warmth, durability, and material honesty.
“Level One is one of those projects where architecture, engineering, interiors, landscape, and construction all had to work together at an unusually high level,” said Rohs Heck, F9 Productions Architect and member of the project design team. “Receiving international recognition for the finished home is a tremendous honor for everyone who helped bring it to life.”
Alex Gore served as Architect/Designer, with Rohs Heck of F9 Productions on the design team. Marpa Landscape Architecture & Construction served as Landscape Architect, Cornerstone Homes served as Builder, and project photography was completed by Jason Buss of F9 Productions.
The Bronze Award continues a decade of international design recognition for F9 Productions. The firm’s Atlas Tiny House was named a Popular Winner in the 2016 Architizer A+Awards, followed by international honors for the Johnson’s Corner adaptive reuse project in 2025 and 2026.
Together, the recognized projects span three very different areas of architecture: experimental small-scale housing, historic adaptive reuse, and technically ambitious custom residential design.
“We’re especially proud that our internationally recognized work isn’t limited to one style or one building type,” Gore said. “Atlas, Johnson’s Corner, and Level One couldn’t be more different. What connects them is our willingness to question assumptions, solve difficult problems, and create architecture specific to the people and places it serves.”