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Feb 01 2018

If it’s Tuesday this must be broker tour – An inside look at Portland’s best “Hemenway Colonial”

 

Every Tuesday, Portland Metro realtors open the doors of newly listed homes to other members of the trade. The idea is to attract agents with clients looking for a property like the one on tour, and to offer the chance to preview it. I don’t have any buyers with a $3.75 million ceiling at the moment, but I was excited to see 2728 SW Greenway Ave on this week’s west side tour list.

According to the Oregon Historical Society, the house is one of the finest examples of Roscoe Hemenway’s work. A graduate of Grant High and the U of O’s School of Architecture, Hemenway designed some 300 buildings over his 36-year career in Portland. He became best known for homes in the Colonial Revival style.

Dunthorpe neighborhood has the most “Hemenway Colonials.” But as I say, Portland Heights has the best. Built in 1951 on two-thirds of an acre, 2728 Greenway bears all the hallmarks of the style. Well-screened from the street by thick shrubs and tall trees, the façade – and its key architectural elements – are shown in the exterior photo.

Hallmarks of Colonial Revival style

Inside is just as grand. The house runs to over 12,000 square feet with 6 bedrooms, 5 full baths, 2 half baths, 3 stories, a home theater and library/bar on the top floor, a wing for live-in staff served by back stairs, and an elevator. The master suite is the size of an average 1-bedroom apartment (625 SF). The living room is the size of a small starter home (1000 SF). And at $58K per year, property taxes are also outsize – just $10K less than the average Portlander’s annual income. Utility costs must be formidable too. Newly required as part of the city’s effort to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the energy score for the house is 1 on a 10-point scale.

The master suite
The sitting room
Dentil moulding & doorway pediment in the dining room
Roses etched in glass & brass hardware
Barrel vault skylight in the sunroom

Back at my desk, I wondered who lives in such luxury. The owner is normally shown on the listing, but not in this case. So I looked up the tax report for the property in the Regional Multiple Listing Service. Turns out, he is just as prominent in today’s civic life as the architect was generations back.

Co-founder of the ad agency that began as a start-up and is now a global brand in its own right, Dan Wieden has called the property home since 1993, when he bought it for $1.225 million.

Industrial style with wildly creative touches – PDX office of W+K

It’s a far cry from the Wieden+Kennedy headquarters in the Pearl – a once abandoned 1908 warehouse with an atrium carved out of its middle, modern industrial finishes, and some wildly creative touches. But the two buildings have historic character (and preservation) in common. As the listing notes, the house has been “meticulously cared for.” Still a young 67, it may eventually join the warehouse on the National Register of Historic Places.

For now, 2728 Greenway needs a new owner. A 25-year appreciation of 300 percent seems reasonable, but it will be interesting to track the listing, which is on my RMLS watch list.

Postscript: As I was putting the finishing touches on this blog post, OregonLive published an article about the house. You can read Janet Eastman’s take here.

Written by Catherine Quoyeser · Categorized: design, home values and prices · Tagged: Colonial Revival architecture, Don Wieden, Dunthorpe, National Register of Historic Places, Portland Heights, Portland Metro, Portland neighborhoods, realtor, Roscoe Hemenway, the Pearl, Wieden+Kennedy

Aug 06 2017

You can live well in close-knit, can-do Oak Hills – and own a piece of its new $4.3 million recreation center

 

How many Metro area neighborhoods can fund, build, own and operate a $4.3 million recreation center? I know of just one – Beaverton’s Oak Hills. On June 24 its Homeowners Association opened the gates to a rebuilt complex with a 5-lane swimming pool, kiddie pool, gym, locker room, meeting room, kitchen, playground and administrative office.

Though unusual, the achievement is of a piece with the neighborhood’s history. At its founding in 1965, Oak Hills was billed as “Oregon’s most complete family community.” Along with the rec center, its 240 acres are home to:

A neighborhood Rummer
  • A highly rated elementary school
  • A church that also runs a preschool program
  • A 33-acre greenway with soccer fields, baseball diamond, walk/bike paths and open spaces
  • 627 detached homes, 29 of which are historic Rummers, Portland’s contribution to Mid-Century Modern architecture
  • 4 townhouse clusters
  • An RV parking space screened by mature trees and shrubs
  • A community garden for growing fruits and vegetables

Want to see homes currently for sale or pending in Oak Hills? Click here

An early example of master planning, the development served as a model when Washington County developed its land use regulations. And no wonder. As planners and architects know, built environments have a big impact on attitudes and behavior. When neighbors have lots of opportunities to rub shoulders in their daily routines, community spirit grows.

Two achievements in frame – historic designation and the new rec center

By 2011, the slogan “This place matters” had become a rallying cry for Oak Hills. The County planned to widen Bethany Rd, which runs right through the middle of the neighborhood. In part to block the plan, residents took on the challenging task of applying for historic designation, including winning HOA approval by a wide margin in May 2012. Though the County eventually proceeded with the road project, in July 2013 Oak Hills became – at age 48 – the youngest community in Oregon and one of the youngest in the country to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Feel-good natural light in the gym

The road to rebuilding the rec center proved even longer and steeper. Efforts to improve the original complex started as far back as 1992, but failed to garner the two-thirds approval needed in a vote by the HOA. By 2014, the center had reached a crossroads. Key systems were at or near the end of their useful lifespans. Any repair involving a county permit would have triggered a cascade of costly code requirements and closure of the facility until all were met.

David Boyd, VP of HOA Board

Though the issue had taken on new urgency, skepticism about finding an affordable yet high-value solution was unchanged.

“Community members were not about to write a blank check,” comments David Boyd, Vice President of the HOA Board and a 19-year resident of Oak Hills.

Want to see homes currently for sale or pending in Oak Hills? Click here

In particular, they balked at paying hundreds of thousands of dollars up front for a detailed design they might not like or that could prove too costly to build.

Meeting room roof lines have an Asian feel

“We didn’t take the traditional design-bid-build route,” Boyd explains.

Instead the Board thoughtfully phased research, consultation, planning, decision making and investment. Step by step, they were able to maximize transparency, build confidence and manage risk.

Early on they approached bankers to estimate the cost per household of different loan scenarios and found that a modest $50 per month would cover a ceiling north of $4 million.

Inside, a full kitchen for catered events

In meetings and surveys, community members gave input on the features they wanted in a center. Their opinions shaped 3 broad conceptual designs that went through a ballpark costing exercise by a contractor. The community weighed in on the 3 options in another survey, and the Board selected the one favored by a majority. Only then was the design fleshed out in more detail, a contracting bid accepted, and a loan of $4.225 million negotiated.

Outdoor gathering places

With these key elements in place, the Board submitted a proposal to the community in the summer of 2015. It was approved by a vote of 82 percent. Construction began the following summer and was completed in a year. Throughout the process, Boyd and other volunteers on the building committee kept a sharp eye on project costs and made adjustments to stay within budget. Overruns came to only about 3 percent, an excellent result in the building industry.

Close-knit and can-do, Oak Hills offers good living. In fact, it’s part of the zip code (97006) that placed 9th on a list of 15 most in-demand Metro neighborhoods published by OregonLive last week. With the rec center rebuilt and in enthusiastic use, that ranking stands to rise.

Want to see homes currently for sale or pending in Oak Hills? Click here

 

Written by Catherine Quoyeser · Categorized: livability, neighborhoods · Tagged: Beaverton, National Register of Historic Places, Oak Hills, Oak Hills Homeowners Association, Oak Hills neighborhood, Oak Hills Recreation Center, Portland neighborhoods, Rummer homes, Washington County