One of Steamboat’s iconic — and most bizarre — buildings was originally a sawdust incinerator, producing huge billows of smoke on the outskirts of town in the 1960s and 70s. Now, the cone-shaped building is a sanctuary for body, mind and soul located in the heart of downtown through Love, Yoga studio.

Even before the yoga studio opened last June, the building acted a community hub in the form of bike shops.

In 1977, Kent Eriksen purchased the cylinder building at an auction for $1. He moved the building piece by piece, reassembling it on Yampa and 12th Street, where it still stands.

“He used the equivalent of chicken wire to keep the integrity of the shape, then plastered it with gunite,” says Mary Bailes, owner of Love, Yoga.

He installed an old chairlift tower, which became an unusual support beam in the center of the structure and created a hydraulic system with a ceiling that opens to let hot air escape.

From there, he launched Sore Saddle Cyclery, which ultimately grew into Moots Bicycles in 1981 — a company currently located on Copper Ridge Drive.

In 2005, Eriksen leased the building to Orange Peel Bicycle Service, which also shares a storied history of starting in a historic residential-turned-commercial space and now exists in a repurposed industrial building, known as Steamboat Basecamp, on the west end of town.

In fall 2023, he sold the building to Collin Kelley, who leased it to Bailes.

“I just felt that special feeling you do about a building when you go into it,” she says, adding that owning a yoga studio had always been her dream.

But before she could open Love, Yoga, she had to renovate the historic building.

“It was a greasy old bike shop that needed a lot of love and a lot of elbow grease,” she says.

She and her partner, Rob Taylor, who owns Grove Mountain Construction, grinded down the cracked cement floor to even it out and placed black rubber gym tiles over it; knocked down a few walls that formerly acted as bike repair stations; and built a wall with transom windows installed over the now-mirrored wall, so only half of the studio retains its semi octagonal shape. Additionally, they removed the staircase to replace it with a ship ladder leading to a meditation room upstairs.

They painted the previously orange and lime green walls white and covered the chairlift tower with wood slats to match the original paneling on the ceiling. Inside, the globe lighting is reminiscent of lanterns hanging from a tree, since the interior beams leading to the skylights reminded Bailes of a big oak tree. In the lobby, they built a new wall and added cubbies, benches and pink tile at the reception desk. They also choose pink paint for the rusted, but beloved, chairlifts, which harken back to the bicycle shop days and still stand outside the building.

“We brought in some feminine touches to this masculine-feeling space,” she says.

They retained Eriksen’s wood door, which he fashioned with old freezer hinges, and preserved the wooden bicycle spoke above the entrance by adding fresh paint.

“We’ve kept some of the original touches, such as the chairlift swings out front, to keep its character and create something really special,” she says.

Love, Yoga

1136 Yampa St.

Steamboat Springs, CO

loveyogasb.com

Originally published in the Winter 2024-25 issue of Spoke+Blossom.

From Pollutant to Wellness Sanctuary — Steamboat’s Original Sawdust Incinerator Ultimately Transforms