The homeowner says wistfully, “I call it the moon house. Whether it's a full moon or new moon, it is just absolutely beautiful. Because of all the windows and the openness of it, it just brings the starlight in, or it brings in the moonlight. It's just spectacular at all times of day.”
Silhouetted against a mountain backdrop that looks like an impressionistic painting, this clean, alpine influenced timber frame combines regional aesthetics and artisanal touches. The homeowner is an aesthete, and the home reflects her artistry in its design intent and functionality.
“If you ask me, the house celebrates the love of the wood, and the structural elements are really doing a great job combining the house structure with the beauty of the wood in a way that’s sound and, in a way where you can bring in kind of as many design elements as you want.”
Being a creative, the homeowner loves combining and using different types of substrates in her work, and in turn, her home. She has an affinity for wood, metal, and glasswork and says, “Those materials go through my artwork; I do fused glass, I absolutely love glasswork, and I love doing metalwork and combining the two. So, you see that [in the house] with the wood to the metal, to the stone, and to the glass, with all of the windows.”
“That's just kind of where I gravitate as an artist, so you see that on the outside. You know, I have been doing my research and seeing a lot of the different companies over the years, and one of the things that I noticed with New Energy Works that really connected with me was how their design has a little bit of a European style.”
Similarly to her artistic exploits, the house is a collaboration of creative aesthetics, individualized elements, and the homeowner’s personality. Using the wilderness backdrop as inspiration and the home as a palette, the house expresses a multitude of creative intentions.
The homeowner recalls, “I attended the big log home timber show in Denver, so, I talked to several companies. Again, I just kept gravitating to New Energy Works. And when I was in Portland, I'm like, oh, my gosh, they're right here where I live. It turns out Jonathan's house was less than three miles from where I lived in Portland.”
“I met Jonathan and he put me in touch with David, NEW’s Portland architect. We really hit it off. He showed me Jonathan's house, to get some ideas going. I think we were kind of fortunate in that he was able to visit my house in Southwest Portland, so he really got the opportunity to see my space there.”
“What I liked about it, is that he saw the colors and everything, but he also got a real feel for the space. I like to entertain; I like to have people over. I like kind of a casual, comfortable, relaxed vibe to it. My houses are not formal, I'm definitely not formal. So that gave them a lot of insight into, you know, really who I am.”
Our West Coast architect David Shirley says that New Energy Works pulls the house that’s inside of you out and shows it to you. That was certainly the case with this project where finding out who our client is, was paramount to understanding the type of house we could build for them.
“My background is also in design engineering, I do industrial facilities, I'm a mechanical engineer; David shared a lot of his concept sketches, and I know that's not typical, because most people don't understand the bubble diagram, and your flow diagrams and all that. I have to overemphasize it was a true collaboration between us. It really was,” the homeowner recalls fondly.
“We used to laugh about how we would set up meetings and they always ended up being 2.5 hours. And it was almost always like a happy hour, because we're both super busy. Sometimes it might have been with the beer on the side or something, but it was always 2.5 hours. I'm a big fan of design, build. I think bringing in the custom design element with the actual timber framer is a really important collaboration.”
The partnership between David and the homeowner paid dividends. The home’s vibe features elements of the homeowner’s creativity, artistic approach, and personality, but with a functional structurally appropriate to New Energy Works heavy timber foundation.
“I see a very clean European style in my home. And what I see in most of the designs, I would say they are not over complicated, if you asked me how some of them can be really kind of ostentatious, it does not have that vibe to me.
The home’s crisp charm reflects a design intent that is unwilling to be placed into a certain descriptor or category. Its development is so inherently personal that it can only be assigned to the homeowner who lives within its walls.
It’s peaks and valleys reflect the alpine slopes on the horizon line; its sight lines emit a warm glow; and its honeyed timbers invite creativity and elicit comfort.
“I love my bedroom. The guestroom, you know, all the guests absolutely love it. They have a special space. My home celebrates the love of the wood, and the structural elements are doing a great job of doing that. Combining a house structure with the beauty of the wood, right? It's welcoming on all kinds of different levels, no matter the mood and no matter the company. It is a piece of art. It's definitely a piece of me.”
Architect: New Energy Works Design
Other Credits: Tamarack Grove Engineering, Nathanael Ward Photography
