A few years ago, Isabel and David Yahng had a regular weekend routine. “We’d check out a coffee shop and go to some open houses,” recalls Isabel. She’s originally from Long Island, New York, he grew up in Hong Kong, and they moved to Portland, Oregon, in 2017. It was through their weekly excursions that they learned about Pacific Northwest modernism and the wealth of midcentury homes designed by notable local architects throughout the city. “Anytime a midcentury house would come up for sale, we would go check it out. We’d go listen to talks at Restore Oregon, and go on tours featuring midcentury architects,” says Isabel. “I think we got a little addicted.”

Isabel and David's dream was to find a midcentury in the woods, one that could be a retreat from the city and their jobs at Nike, but still be close to all of Portland’s amenities. “It was like, maybe one day that would be nice, if and when this needle in a haystack pops up,” says Isabel. Then, just a month after they got married in 2020, they found it in the form of a Saul Zaik–designed house on three-quarters of an acre on the west side of town.

The beginning of Pacific Northwest modernism starts with the work of Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon in the 1930s, and the second generation, who worked from the 1950s onward, includes Saul Zaik, who designed until his passing in 2020. Zaik was referred to as the Dean of Portland Architects, and in a 2009 interview, summed up his approach: “I think it has to do with a Northwest lifestyle. Our clients were outdoor people who appreciated the landscape and wanted to be connected to it and to preserve it.”

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

The landscape was the first thing David and Isabel noticed on their initial visit to this house, built in 1963 for Zaik’s friend and next-door neighbor Howard Hermanson, as the long driveway wound through tall Douglas firs and cedars, as well as mature maples. A long boardwalk leads to the front door, with a low-slung hip roof over the front facade that gives no hint to the walls of tall windows inside. “We looked at each other and our hearts were just racing,” says Isabel. “We had seen a lot of houses for fun, but this one elicited a totally different response for us.”

After living in the home for a year and learning that they would be expanding their family, the couple had a pretty good idea of the changes that they wanted to make in a remodel. These started with removing a spiral staircase, which was a tripping hazard, as well as a mezzanine that absorbed all of the sun coming in through a skylight.

“I did not look at historical photographs, but one can imagine that when this house was built on that ridge, those trees were probably like thirty feet shorter,” says designer Prentis Hale of Seattle firm SHED Architecture and Design. “Now, those beautiful hundred-foot-tall trees tend to create a very dark mottled light inside.”

Before: Main Level

After: Main Level

For the redesign, Hale drew on an experience from architecture school: a visit to the Villa Schreiner by architect Sverre Fehn in Oslo. Though the two houses are very different in many respects, Hale remembers the villa to be “sort of a dark and moody house,” small in size, with a central core lit up by a skylight.

“That allowed the light to impact every room in that house at different times of the day,” says Hale. “So the design investigation became, if we are going to remove this loft, how do we do that so every space on the upper floor and even some on the lower floor participate in that experience? We’re not going to rip it out and then do nothing with it.”

Hale opened the kitchen to the other living spaces, creating a designated dining/tea drinking area within a glassed nook, and tweaked windows throughout to frame picturesque views of the trees. The staircase was relocated, with a powder room added in its place, and two small bedroom suites on the first floor collapsed into one generous primary suite. Downstairs, there’s now three flexible bedrooms, a larger bathroom, as well as a hangout spot.

With the circulation sorted, Hale detailed a slat wall feature that extends down from the ceiling beams. This makes it so the sun coming through the skylight is filtered, not just into the main core of the home, but down into the new staircase as well as the private areas of the powder room and primary suite, thanks to fixed glass panels in select spots. “Now when you’re on the upper level, there isn’t a room from which you cannot see the skylight,” says Hale.

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

For the material palette, David and Isabel told Hale they wanted it to be as pared back as the floor plan. “Because we are minimalists and care so much about quality and detail, when you look at our house, it looks very simple,” says David. “There aren’t many appliances or things, but everything we chose was very purposeful.”

The couple extended this to everything—from a wooden bathtub that evokes an onsen to the flush-mount burner design in the kitchen—in order to recall their trips to Japan and their love of the country’s aesthetics.

“Now there’s a true feeling of lightness here,” says Isabel, and one that doesn’t just come from the liberated skylight in the main room. “Every time we come home, we just feel, instantly, like a huge sigh of, ‘Yes, we’re home.’”

Before: Primary Bedroom

After: Primary Bedroom

Before: Primary Bathroom

After: Primary Bathroom

After: Lower Level

More Before & After stories:

Before & After: They Gave Their Portland Ranch House a “Midsommar Modern” Revamp

Before & After: After 70 Years, a Seattle Midcentury Finally Reaches Its Full Potential

A Thorough Renovation Primes a Portland Home for Aging in Place

Project Credits:

Architecture: SHED Architecture & Design (@shedarchitecture)

Builder: Purch and Holding

Structural Engineering: Grummel Engineering

Cabinetry Design & Installation: Big Branch Woodworking