Celebrated architect Robert Oshatz has a grand plan. He wants to build five large houses to occupy a fraction of land he owns in Forest Park.
Ninety percent of the bigleaf maples and other trees on the 2.3-acre property will be untouched. Sprouting among them with be detached, vertical dwellings, each anchored to a lot that’s around 2,000 square feet, and with many levels above and below the street.
“Lot size doesn’t matter because you’re living up in the air,” says Oshatz, who envisions the houses as “a bouquet of flowers,” with a towering shaft that “blossoms” as it rises.
Oshatz and Lawrence Rosencrantz of Windermere Realty Trust are marketing the five lots in the Royal Five subdivision, at Northwest Skyline and Northwest Royal boulevards. Asking prices starting at $1.4 million include construction of a custom home with about 3,000 square feet of living space.
The architect will work closely with the buyers to create a residence to suit their needs.
“There’s a tremendous number of options,” he says.
For example, the main floor at the street level could include an open living room, dining area and kitchen, plus an office or guest room, and a large balcony.
A U-shaped staircase and an elevator could access the other levels.
A top floor could have a master suite, and levels cascading down the slope could each have two bedrooms and a bathroom, or a two-story studio could be added.
Oshatz says the steepness of the hillside will allow for five levels and there will be at least 25 feet between the houses, which he describes as being “slim and vertical.”
Renderings suggest what could crop up in this forested parcel: A tiered structure, supported by steel and a wood frame, that grows out of the sloping lot and has expansive windows and extended balconies that overlook the woodland environment.
Oshatz says lot lines can shift to capture views of Mount Adams and city lights. He hopes to install eco-roofs with live plants and wide overhangs so people can be undercover outside, even when it’s raining.
The buyers would own the common land, says Rosencrantz, and homeowners’ association dues are expected to be low since the land will stay in its natural state. “There will be minor expenses for such things as removal of dead trees that pose a hazard, any storm damage and other policing of the area,” he says. “The association would also need liability insurance.”
Rosencrantz, who has developed Catlin Crest, Aspen Ridge and other neighborhoods, says, “Robert is creating a unique development in Portland, designed to unify environment, structure, poetry of design and client wishes.”
Wooded common area on three sides of each homesite maximizes privacy and views, and adds to the uniqueness of the neighborhood, he adds.
“This will not be a single residential work of art; but a collection of artistic, ecological homes that integrate with each other and the surrounding environment to create a larger work of art as a whole,” says Rosencrantz.
Vertical structures that stop passersby in their tracks are not new to Oshatz.
Since 1971, he has designed unconventional contemporary houses with top floors sometimes wider than lower ones, and expansive windows that make it feel as if you can touch the sky.
His most famous Portland structures are the Fennell floating house on the Willamette River, the Wilkinson treehouse in a forested part of Southwest Portland and his own funnel-shaped home in Lake Oswego.
Oshatz’s 1984 Rosenthal Residence, named after the first buyers, has been on architectural tours, profiled in national and international publications and seen on shows like HGTV’s “Extreme Homes.”
The Rosenthal property, perched over Southwest Portland’s Marquam Nature Park, sold Oct. 8 for just under $1 million.
--Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman
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