Zion National Park, the exquisite canyon field in the desertscape of southwest Utah, is set to become an architectural paradise à la Palm Springs. The catalyst? A ‘landscape hotel’ and boutique retreat called Paréa, opening in 2027, and its new sister-development Pala, an architectural community with a master plan by Barcelona-based Studio Andrew Trotter.
Pala Zion will sit a short drive from Paréa on 35 acres of private elevated mesa above the town of Virgin, near the trails of the national park. Both are developed by entrepreneurs Reed Lerner and Robert Babbage.
Trotter, who also designed the Paréa hotel, has hand-selected a team of architects to join him in taking on individual villas for the Pala project. He landed on like-minded practices MORQ, based in Italy and Australia, and two teams from Mexico: Goma and Taller Héctor Barroso. The homes will form a cohesive community fusing Mediterranean, Mexican and American ideas adjusted for life in Utah’s Kolob Canyon.
Render of THB Mesa House 1 (c) Taller Héctor Barroso
Render of THB Mesa House 1 (c) Taller Héctor Barroso
Render of THB Mesa House 1 (c) Taller Héctor Barroso
Render of THB Mesa House 1 (c) Taller Héctor Barroso
Render of Panoramic House 1 by Goma (c)
Render of Panoramic House 1 by Goma (c)
Render of Panoramic House 1 by Goma (c)
Render of Panoramic House 1 by Goma (c)
Render of Panoramic House 1 by Goma (c)
The 22 low-slung residences will have three to five bedrooms, a spa, sauna and private courtyard with a swimming pool. Their raw limestone and sandstone, retrieved from the excavation process, will blend harmoniously with the surrounding bluffs and boulders of the primeval terrain. Some structures will feature open-air sunroofs crafted from the negative space of the structures. They’ll range in size from 280 to 465 sq m, with seamless transitions between indoors and out.
Describing its initial designs for the project, MORQ likens each house as ‘a device’ allowing the inhabitants to feel and acknowledge the unique location and the scale of the landscape. For its part, Goma has drawn up six panoramic houses and one corner solution designed to root into the landscape. This house is formed by a big hollow cover that floats above the ground to shield the house from the summer sun; yet in winter, when the sun is lower on the horizon, sunlight can still enter through the gap between the shell and the ground.
Taller Hector Barroso’s ‘timeless’ houses have a ‘quiet in the woods’ mood that conforms to the vastness of the landscape. The homes should be available for sale in 2026, with just one home by each of the four firms available for presale in this first release.
