Just because Mike Horton and Pam Hroza bought a sheep farm doesn’t mean they were ready to head out to pasture (so to speak). But they had to admit: The three-acre property in Portland’s West Hills had possibilities.

After retiring and moving to Portland, Oregon, in 2018 (where Pam had lived previously) following more than a decade of corporate leadership in Shanghai, the couple wanted a home with plenty of room for gatherings, inside and out.

“We have a big family, and being away for over 10 years, the idea was to build a space where we can easily host family and friends on a regular basis,” Pam explains. “We wanted to focus on common areas to really bring people together and share.”

The couple also wanted to try sustainable urban farming with their two daughters, and the sloping site offered an uncommon opportunity amidst this realm of single-family houses just a few miles west of downtown.

But then came a surprise. The change in ownership triggered an environmental review that designated an upper and lower wetland at the north and southeast of the site (puddle-prone meadows to the sheep previously grazing here), with a relatively thin strip of land in between them.

As city, state, and federal regulators wrestled over jurisdiction, there was a chance the new owners wouldn’t be able to build a house here at all. “It became a project within itself before we even started designing,” recalls Tim Schouten, a partner at Giulietti Schouten Weber Architects, the firm Mike and Pam hired.

Ultimately, the challenge became an opportunity to orient the 5,919-square-foot, four-bedroom house around the wetlands and make them part of the view. The home’s foundation lifts off the ground in the middle, between the two wetlands, in order to let the water pass through. “The whole house really is built like a bridge,” says builder Don Tankersley.

The L-shaped home, angled slightly away from its north-south-running street, is split into two perpendicular volumes. A smaller bedroom wing stands between (and over) the wetlands, and to the west a public wing wraps around an outdoor pool and terraced deck. There’s just enough room beside the southeast wetland for the couple and their two daughters to enjoy a generous garden.

The clients were inspired by midcentury-modern architecture and its local offshoot: Northwest regional modernism. From the late 1930s into the ’70s, architects like Pietro Belluschi, John Yeon, and Saul Zaik fused the simplicity and transparency of International Style modernism with the influence of Japanese architecture and local traditions.

These Northwest midcentury houses, almost always a single story, were known for wood construction, pitched roofs, and large overhangs.

Mike and Pam’s home, completed in 2019, shares all of these features, but the architects named the home Patton New Century (it borders Patton Road) to emphasize that it’s more. “It’s a take on midcentury style with today’s modern technologies and materials,” adds architect Jake Weber, a partner at Giulietti Schouten Weber Architects.

Moving into and through the home brings a series of what Pam calls “moments.” Beyond the front door, a low-ceiling entry offers a first glimpse of the wetland, through floor-to-ceiling glass. Along the opposite wall is an almost equally large, colorful, circularly-shaped painting from Chinese artist Lu Xinjian’s City DNA series: an abstracted map of the Shanghai neighborhood where Pam and Mike used to live. “The painting is a moment,” Pam says. “The kitchen is a moment.”

Like a midcentury, or especially a Frank Lloyd Wright home, the compression of the entry leads to another such moment. Turning the corner reveals a wide-open living area with a vaulted, Douglas fir–clad ceiling and an open kitchen (a true midcentury would have hidden the cooking area away).

A massive glulam ridge beam spans 65 feet to create one large, column-free space. Lots of contemporary homes have wide-open living rooms. This one feels like something more: an act of structural engineering that enables the home to bridge the wetlands. It’s reminiscent of the work of midcentury master Pietro Belluschi, but (because of the volume that exists) not one of his houses—rather, one of his wood-ensconced churches.

“It’s difficult to do. You’re having a beam custom made and craned in,” Tankersley says. “But the effect is stunning.”

The kitchen is clearly the centerpiece of the home, featuring a 21-foot-long kitchen island clad in creamy brick and lacquered avocado-green surfaces that give way to a quartz countertop. There’s enough space for an extended family to gather and cook together.

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The glass wall facing the pool and patio can fold away completely, allowing the great room and the space outside to become one combined indoor/outdoor space. In the year or so between moving in and the start of the pandemic, Mike and Pam even entertained a group of 50 people at one time.

Both the kitchen and adjacent living area are particularly full of natural light because of how the design cuts a row of clerestory windows into the crest of the pitch. Western light balances out the floor-to-ceiling glass facing the pool to the east. “We really had to have some height to this wing because we had such big eaves,” Schouten explains.

“And in the winter,” Mike adds, “clerestory windows bring in light when the sun is lower.”

To separate the living room from a small hallway leading to an exercise space and guest room at the end of the house, Tankersley’s team created a custom walnut screen based on an idea from interior designer Betsy Hurst of Brandenburg Studios Design. Although it references midcentury design, its scale makes it contemporary—the screen stretches dramatically to the top of the exposed ceiling.

“A lot of contractors, if I showed them something like this, would say, ‘How are you going to build it?’” Hurst says. “I showed it to Don and Scott [Gunter, Tankersley’s project manager], and they were immediately excited, drawing sketches and saying, ‘Oh yeah, we could do like this.’”

“I actually cried and hugged Donnie,” says Hurst of the moment she saw the completed screen being installed.

The bedroom wing consists of a principal suite for the couple beside their daughters’ rooms (and a pair of baths), and each space features pops of color, often from wall tiles. In the principal suite, it comes from touches of brass, inlaid between the tiles. For the young ladies, it’s a bright, multihued pattern. These bedrooms all look out at the pool, terrace, and the wetlands below.

“They all share that outdoor space, in a way,” Weber says. “They’re relatively modest bedrooms that just have really ample light.”

For all the project’s refined beauty, its owners understand their home will always be about the landscape. “It used to be a small working farm with an orchard, sheep, and chickens. We want to try to keep the site as natural as we can, but maybe revive the farm and vegetables too,” Mike says. “Flowers...chickens...who knows? We might even get some sheep.”

Related Reading:

Explore 12 of Our Favorite Homes in Portland

21 Midcentury Renovations in Portland That Maintain Their Northwest Charm

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Giulietti Schouten Weber Architects / @gsw_architects

Interior Designer: Brandenburg Studios Design / @bsd_interiordesign

Builder: Don Tankersley & Co.

Structural Engineer: Madden & Baughman Engineering

Civil Engineer and Environmental Specialist: Environmental Science Associates

Landscape Design: Outdoor Scenery Design / @outdoorscenerydesign

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A Portland Home Combines Midcentury Style and Sustainable Design as It Bridges Wetlands