When Greg Hoffman and Kirsten Brady decided to give up their Tudor-style home in Portland, Oregon, and go modern, their preference was initially to build new. Then, at their realtor’s suggestion, they went to see the view from the so-called “View-Master House” in the Council Crest neighborhood, the highest point in the city. Designed in the early 1950s by architect Roscoe Hemenway for inventor Karl Kurtz—who developed stereoscopic devices for Sawyer’s, maker of the famous View-Master toy—the house offered a panoramic vista of both the downtown and snow-capped peaks of the Cascade mountain range in the distance.

Click here to read the Before & After story

“I had a 25-page creative deck. I’m obsessive with color, material, form—everything you can imagine,” Greg Hoffman, resident

“You’re reminded to put things in perspective,” says Greg, vice president of global brand innovation at Nike. Entranced by the view, he and Kirsten, a nonprofit fundraiser, gave up their homebuilding plans, made an offer, and, with their two children in tow, moved into the postwar dwelling.

In the mid-20th century, a generation of Pacific Northwest architects like Hemenway, Pietro Belluschi, and John Yeon birthed a regional brand of modernist houses known for their overhanging eaves, abundant glass, and wood-festooned interiors. This house was no exception with its extensive Douglas fir wall paneling and glass in back, facing the view. But it also had typical midcentury house problems, like low ceilings and a diminutive kitchen.

“The house had really good bones, but I get the feeling that it was a little too early an architecture to capture all of the opportunities,” explains architect Robert Miller of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ), the firm that Greg—a fan of their many Apple stores, including the Fifth Avenue location in Manhattan—hired to reimagine the house. “There’s a natural progression and sequence: a sort of unfolding and choreography as you go through,” says Miller, who worked on the redesign with project manager Nick Hons.

Together, they explored ways to enhance the indoor/outdoor feel. “We extended roof lines, decks, and hardscaping as far as we could go,” says Greg. The door and windows on the ground floor were moved about four feet toward the road. A wall of basalt fencing was also added just beyond the exterior to increase privacy, but it is divided into three large sections, allowing passersby on the street to see straight through the interior to the view beyond. “When we first started the remodel, neighbors would stop and ask us if they’d still be able to see the eastern view through the house,” recalls general contractor Don Tankersley.

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The ground floor’s ceiling was raised to allow a ribbon of clerestory windows, filling the interior with light—especially after a wall separating the dining room and living room was removed. A mudroom was also taken out to expand the kitchen and give it greater illumination. (The bottom level, built into the side of the hill, was left mostly unaltered.)

“On the initial visit to the house, Greg opened a book of patent drawings for the toy View-Master. It was always on our minds,” Robert Miller, architect

A new top floor, a kind of penthouse suite for the couple, was also added, but set back along the north and west from the ground floor to keep a lower profile, with a wall of ipe cladding extending past the edge of the house to form a secluded terrace to the south. The architects also cut a swath of glass into the middle of the top floor on the street-facing side to introduce more light but mainly used frosted instead of clear glazing, both for privacy and as a kind of optical illusion to maintain the horizontal line of the ipe.

Though a hint of Hemenway’s original design, and certainly its spirit, remains, BCJ’s redesign makes the house look much different than it used to. In total, the renovation added some 1,600 square feet. “If you look at BCJ’s work, they want to achieve those bold gestures,” Greg explains. “But at the end of the day I just wanted this totally integrated, harmonious concept, where nothing felt out of place.”

To that end, Greg and Kirsten’s art and furniture collection, featuring work by Color Field painter Ellsworth Kelly and Brazilian furniture designer Sergio Rodrigues, perfectly matches the home’s midcentury vintage. And the results haven’t gone unnoticed. Three TV shows—Grimm, Portlandia, and the upcoming Trinkets on Netflix—have been filmed at the house since the renovations ended.

“There’s a couple views from the exterior that scream, ‘This is something unique,’” Greg says, “but certainly from an interior standpoint, it’s just really well-executed craftsmanship, with an emphasis on harmony and balance. It’s hard to fully appreciate unless you’re in it.” Miller agrees: “So much architecture wants to shout, to make an icon of itself. This house is powerful, but it’s something you appreciate over time.”

See the Before & After photos: It’s Hard to Believe This Sleek Modernist Sanctuary Started as a 1950s Ranch House

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson / @bohlincywinkskijackson

General Contractor: Don Tankersley Construction

Structural Engineer: PCS Structural Solutions

Lighting Designer: O-LLC Lighting Design

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