Oregon Architecture

Desert Rain home

Breaking New Ground

A Bend couple builds an extreme green dream home written byMelissa Dalton | photography by Ross Chandler Eight years ago, Tom Elliott and Barbara Scott took a fortuitous road trip. The couple was driving from Bend to Southern Utah to go backpacking when they heard an interesting broadcast on public radio. The program featured Seattle architect Jason McLennan discussing the creation of his new green building standards, called the Living Building Challenge (LBC). His challenge was for people to craft buildings as self-sustaining as plants. At the time, Elliott and Scott were planning their own “uber-green home” in Bend, but McLennan’s message inspired them to go further. “We just looked at each other and said, ‘That’s exactly what we want to do,’” Elliott said. The couple met in Montana, where Elliott was a sustainable cattle rancher and Scott was a school administrator. They bonded over a shared love of the outdoors…

Portland State University

The Greening of Universities

Oregon universities combine high design and sustainability in three new builds written by Melissa Dalton OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY-CASCADES Tykeson Hall When Bora Architects designed the first academic building on Oregon State University’s new Cascades campus in Bend in 2014, the firm drew inspiration from an efficient, and uber-handy, object: the Swiss Army knife. Why? The footprint of the new building, Tykeson Hall, is relatively small–just 45,000 square feet–yet it would accommodate many academic and programming needs on the growing campus. (A dorm and dining hall were built simultaneously.) Requirements included classrooms of all sizes, from science labs to an eighty-person auditorium, a library and computer lab, student council space and administrative offices.  Equally important and ambitious is OSU’s goal to ensure future Cascades campus operations will be net-zero, meaning it produces as much energy as it consumes, balances water supply and demand, and eliminates landfill waste. Toward that end, Bora specified…

Tetherow home

An architect and interior designer fashion a modern Tetherow home befitting the high desert

written by Melissa Dalton In this house, the formality of a traditional enclosed entryway is a thing of the past. Step inside the front door and you’re greeted with an immediate view out the back—a 12-foot-high wall of glass that frames a grove of Ponderosa pine trees, desert scrub brush and several Cascade peaks in the distance. Putting that view upfront was a priority for Anne Mastalir. When Mastalir and her family relocated to Central Oregon from Portland in 2013, the move was an opportunity for the interior designer and owner of Pringle Design to craft a house that was not only a calling card for her work, but an ode to her new home. “It was important to us to design and build a home that fit in well with the surrounding landscape and fit the Bend environment,” Mastalir said. I figured out a very long time ago that…

Oregon athletic facilities, big and small, are planned around the state

New Oregon athletic facilities, big and small, around the state written by Sheila G. Miller Many track and field buffs are in mourning at the changes underway at historic Hayward Field. The facility, which was built in 1919 to house football and grew into the legendary location of Olympic Trials and USA Track and Field championships, has been torn down and will be rebuilt entirely using funds from the Phil and Penny Knight Foundation and other donors. The new facility is the result of Eugene hosting the 2021 World Outdoor Championships. It will have an expanded capacity—from 8,500 to 12,900 with room for temporary seating up to 30,000—and a nine-story tower with an observation deck, as well as a locker room and an indoor practice facility. Missing from the facility will be the wooden stands where fans have cheered on racers for nearly a century. The project was designed by…

What’s Going Up: New Oregon Retirement Facilities

Retirees in the Portland area will have a new option when Touchmark in the West Hills opens this summer. The community will have two lodges—one with 130 one- and two-bedroom independent living units, and another with 146 units that will provide memory care and other assisted living options. In 2019, the community will add single-family and “garden homes,” which will be two-story buildings with four units, two on each floor and with an elevator. The facility will also feature several dining options and a health and fitness club with a heated indoor pool.