AMEYALLI

SEPTEMBER 2024 | PRINT EDITION

Developer and design firms: Chuck Heath and Overland Partners, San Antonio, and the Chopra Foundation

The details: When architecture and urban design firm Overland Partners was introduced to developer Chuck Heath, initial meetings quickly evolved into deeper conversations about “creating a new paradigm in wellbeing experiences,” says senior principal Bob Shemwell. Enter Ameyalli, a longevity-focused community in Midway, Utah built around a natural geothermal spring that archaeological history suggests has been used by humans for nearly five millennia. Designed in collaboration with Deepak Chopra, known for his work in medicine and mindfulness, and the Chopra Foundation—which has selected the property as its North American headquarters—Ameyalli’s “design will respond to the [location] in the most authentic and respectful way possible,” he says. The property’s low-profile and nature-forward architecture marries interiors with the surrounding geography through a palette of wood, pot rock from the geothermal landscape, and native grasses—all set against a cinematic backdrop of Mount Timpanogos and the south-central Rocky Mountains.

Slated to launch in 2027—joining the 24 luxury residences and two-family lodges currently open—is an 80-room boutique hotel and the sprawling 50,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor Ameyalli Wellbeing Center at the heart of the community. Drawing from Chopra’s legacy teachings on wellness, the center offers an array of programming, as well as a subterranean flooded hypostyle hall that contains thermal pools in a range of temperatures and qualities. “The stories and inherent spiritual and emotional qualities of the site are expressed throughout the composition,” Shemwell adds, “but as you descend to the lower depths of the spa [there’s] a stronger, more visceral connection to its hidden aspects.”