CEDAR RIDGE RESIDENCE
CLIENT
PRIVATE RESIDENT
LOCATION
PORTLAND, USA
ROLE
LEAD ARCHITECT
BUDGET
$2.9 MILLION
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
Cedar Ridge Residence is a hillside home organized entirely around a long, uninterrupted view corridor toward the valley below, with every major space aligned to preserve that single sightline.
The architecture is intentionally understated from the approach, revealing its full spatial and visual ambition only once a visitor moves through the entry sequence toward the view.
DESIGN APPROACH
A cantilevered outdoor deck, extending nearly ten meters beyond the hillside's edge, functions as the house's defining gesture and primary gathering space for most of the year.
Positioned to align precisely with the valley view corridor, the deck is treated as an outdoor room in its own right, complete with a built-in fireplace and covered dining area.
MATERIAL & LIGHT
Cedar cladding, board-formed concrete, and blackened steel railings make up the material palette, chosen for their ability to weather gracefully in the exposed hillside climate. Interior surfaces echo the same warm cedar tones used outside.
Full-height glazing along the view-facing elevation allows low afternoon light to flood the main living space, while deep roof overhangs prevent overheating through the warmer months.
SPATIAL EXPERIENCE
The plan steps down the hillside in three shallow terraces, each aligned with the central view corridor, so the sense of descending toward the valley is felt throughout the entire sequence of rooms.
Private bedrooms are set slightly back from the view-facing edge, trading a direct outlook for greater privacy while still receiving borrowed light and glimpses of the valley beyond.
SITE & CONTEXT
Built on a steep, exposed hillside lot, the house was oriented specifically to capture the single best available view corridor between two stands of existing cedar trees, rather than maximizing overall glazing.
This disciplined siting meant sacrificing some potential floor area in exchange for an unobstructed, permanently protected outlook that could not be replicated anywhere else on the property.
ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE
The building's massing is deliberately simple — a single low horizontal volume — so as not to compete with the dramatic cantilevered deck that extends from it, which remains the composition's clear focal point.
Roof and wall planes are kept flush and unadorned, reinforcing the sense that the architecture exists to frame the view rather than to draw attention to itself.
INDOOR & OUTDOOR
Retractable glazed walls along the main living space allow the interior to merge completely with the cantilevered deck, effectively doubling the usable living area on temperate days.
A secondary, more sheltered terrace off the primary bedroom offers a quieter, partially enclosed outdoor space for mornings, balancing the boldness of the main deck with a more intimate counterpart.
COURTYARD CONCEPT
The cantilevered deck remains the single idea the entire house is built around, its structural ambition matched by the discipline of everything else in the design staying quiet in comparison.
Even from the entry, positioned at the opposite end of the plan, sightlines are calibrated to offer an early glimpse of the deck and the view it frames beyond.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE
Deep roof overhangs and the north-facing orientation of the main glazing keep solar gain manageable without relying heavily on mechanical cooling, even through hot summer afternoons.
The cantilever's structural steel was engineered to minimize material use while meeting seismic requirements for the hillside site, and cedar cladding was sourced from certified sustainable forestry operations.
DESIGN OUTCOME
Cedar Ridge Residence shows the value of designing a house around a single, disciplined idea — one view, fully committed to — rather than distributing ambition evenly across every elevation.
It is a study in restraint used deliberately, so that the one bold gesture the house does make can be felt with full force.