One of our first commissions, conceived in 2005 under our original partnership, PIQUE collaborative, this project emerged from a condition of abundance: a perched site offering 180° views across the Cascades to the west, the high desert to the east, and the city shimmering in the valley below.
The challenge was not to find a view, but to give it form—to make vastness legible, intimate, and navigable.
The house took the form of two lenses. The first, public, focuses on the city below. The second, private, projects towards the distant horizon of Paulina Peak. Each lens opens as a loft space, so that as one moves towards the framed viewpoint, the panorama reveals itself slowly and deliberately.
The two volumes shift in section in response to their respective orientations, the programme, and the contours of the land. They are separated acoustically and experientially by a central atrium containing the main stair.
After extensive discussions, the neighbourhood review committee approved the project.
Viewmaster
Two lens-shaped volumes framing the city and Paulina Peak: a 2005 project conceived to embrace and refine a 180° panorama.Type: Residential, International, Conceptual
Surface: ~380 m²
Year: 2005
Location: Oregon, USA
Project Team: Peter Jahnke, Eric Meglasson
Surface: ~380 m²
Year: 2005
Location: Oregon, USA
Project Team: Peter Jahnke, Eric Meglasson
The instrament
Faced with a site almost too generous in its views, the project conceived the house as a telescopic instrument: not to capture everything at once, but to give limits, focus, and meaning to what is seen.
Two lenses
One volume turns towards the city in the valley; the other projects towards Paulina Peak on the distant horizon. Each opens as a loft, allowing the panorama to reveal itself gradually as one moves towards the window. The shift in section between the two responds simultaneously to the viewpoint, the programme, and the topography.
An atrium between the two
A central atrium separates the two lenses, housing the vertical circulation and marking the threshold between public and private life, between the city below and the distant mountain.