Writer and filmmaker Brian Libby immediately bonded with the Stump House owners, whose home he wrote about in "Stumptown Rock", over a shared passion for hardcore punk band Fugazi. Libby was already acquainted with Architecture W the firm that designed the house: He wrote about the studio and its Nagoya, Japan, apartment complex for Dwell in June 2005. Libby is a visual arts critic for the Oregonian and his first book, Tales from Oregon Duck Sideline. was published in 2007.
Even before construction was complete, the Stump House was turning heads. When its green-minded future owners learned of its shining environmental résumé, they knew they’d found a place to call home.
It’s not every local homes tour that merits attention beyond a city’s borders. But the 11xDesign tour, scheduled for February 21, featuring some of Portland’s most inspired contemporary residential design, is not a traditional home tour.
Completed in 2004, the Belmont Street Lofts—with their crisscrossing pattern of wood, metal, and glass—have settled neatly into their neighborhood, offering a contemporary complement to the architectural elder statesmen of the block.
When creative director Ben Watson and his partner, painter Claudio Tschopp, relocated from Basel, Switzerland, to Portland, Oregon, three years ago, they had been told about Portland’s Pearl District, a popular former industrial enclave now brimming with galleries, restaurants, and residential lofts. But the outskirts beckoned: “I decided that if I’m in Portland,” Watson recalls, “why not enjoy the essence of what the city is?”
