“This is a really lovely backyard ADU,” a jury member said. “I like how it’s sited and what they did with the roof to create a wonderful space for music” on the mezzanine. After renovating the client’s Midcentury Modern house during the pandemic, the architects were called back to design a work-from-home studio in the backyard. “The house has a lot of covered porches; we wanted to re-vision that experience in the studio,” says Chris Brown, AIA. The upstairs portion cantilevers over the front door, and the building’s window placements “create an almost prismatic geometry,” Chris says. A north window points into the tree canopy, while a lower south window faces the family play structure. “You can see through the building south to north, creating a periscope for viewing the tree canopy.”
Its 1×4 vertical cedar siding matches that of the house but is stained instead of painted to expose the mottled grain; and the board-formed concrete foundation echoes the terraced site walls. Interior materials are durable but richly detailed: hand-troweled concrete floor, white oak cabinetry and stair, and a steel handrail. “We chose beautiful materials but tried to deploy them in a way that didn’t feel as precious as the way they’re used in the house,” Chris says. The judges noticed, praising the “good details.”
Citation
Custom Accessory or Outbuilding
Observation Studio
4015 Studio
Portland, Oregon
Project Credits
Architect/Interior Designer: Chris Brown, AIA, principal in charge, Observation Studio (formerly Linden, Brown) Portland, Oregon
Builder: Raven Builders, Portland
Landscape architect: Dorothy Bothwell, Bothwell Landscape Studio, Portland
Project size: 533 square feet
Site size: 0.16 acre
Construction cost: Withheld
Photography: Jeremy Bittermann Photography
Key Products
Cabinetry: Custom white oak by James Gudat, Maple Key
Cladding: 1×4 tight-knot stained cedar
Entry doors/locksets: Sierra Pacific, Baldwin
Flooring: Wide plank white oak
Lighting: RBW, Allied Maker
Millwork: Custom white oak
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero undercounter
Window shading system: Lutron
Windows: Sierra Pacific