GROWING UP IN A family-owned lumber and construction business, Sid Scott learned an appreciation for basic building materials. So when the architect designed his own 2,400-square-foot custom home, he took the opportunity to express it. “I wanted to see how far I could go using off-the-shelf products,” says Scott, who managed to build his modern masterpiece for only $140 per square foot. He paid homage to the art of framing by leaving the walls, ceilings, and rafters free of sheet rock. “The goal was to make it look like it was 80 percent done,” Scott explains. “This way, standard construction becomes decorative.”
Sited on a 5,000-square-foot infill lot, the house was scaled to fit the neighborhood and is equipped with large windows to maximize views of Mt. Hood and an open floor plan to suit the Scott family's casual lifestyle. Like the materials, the floor plan is simple—two side-by-side boxes connected by a glass-enclosed breezeway. The exterior is clad in horizontal cedar siding, some of it painted and some left natural. Inside, the heart of the house, both figuratively and literally, is the two-story living room. “It gets great light, and we spend all of our time in there,” Scott says. “It's like a little community center.”
Category: Custom one-of-a-kind less than 3,500 square feet; Entrant/Architect: Scott Edwards Architecture, Portland, Ore.; Builder: Stix and Stones Construction, Portland; Landscape architect: Shapiro Landscape Architecture, Portland
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Portland, OR.
