The jagged spine of the Rocky Mountains is too beautiful to mar. Yet over the years, developers and builders have managed to do just that: The planet’s third-longest mountain range is covered in lackluster homes. But beyond the fray, courtesy of some extraordinary architects, there’s a group of standout residences that both honor the surrounding splendor and represent the latest evolution of a regional style that began in the mid-20th century, when leading architects including Marcel Breuer, Buckminster Fuller, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eliot Noyes, and Eero Saarinen completed commissions in the Western United States, transforming it into a hub for architectural modernism. Journalist John Gendall, who grew up near the Canadian Rockies, surveys 18 of these distinctive structures in his new book, Rocky Mountain Modern: Contemporary Alpine Homes (Monacelli Press).