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Architect John Yeon designed Watzek House for client Aubrey Watzek in 1936. The house became known for its iconic roofline and columned portico that called attention to the slopes of nearby Mount Hood. Unusual for its time, the house features extensive use of wood finishes and innovative details. Both the house and the architect achieved early fame when it was featured in a 1944 book published by the New York Museum of Modern Art, which called it "intimately related to its magnificent natural setting."
When Watzek House was completed in 1937, it combined modernist notions of space and detailing with the formality of neoclassicism, a blend which contributed to the emerging Pacific Northwest Style of architecture.
It upholds the attention to proportion and clean lines that were hallmarks of the International Style and Art Moderne. The drama and grandeur of neoclassicism—a stronger tradition than modernism in 1937—are clearly evident in the ceiling height changes and detailing, as well as the framed views. The living room ceiling is coffered in the neoclassical tradition, but is here executed unconventionally in unpainted wood.
The Pacific Northwest Style (known variously as Northwest Regional Style and Northwest Style) is characterized by use of local materials such as cedar and fir, sensitivity to the site, large windows with which to take in the view and bring in light, shallowly pitched roofs, and informal client lifestyle. Strong Asian and Scandinavian influences commonly appear. All these elements are present in Watzek House. Architects John Yeon and Pietro Belluschi (another Portland-based architect in whose office Yeon worked) were some of the first designers to work in this style.
Known for his sensitive integration of building and site, John Yeon was a largely self-taught architect. Only twenty-six years old when he designed Watzek house in 1936, his exposure to architecture came from his work as an office boy for architect A. E. Doyle and his architectural studies at two universities, as well as his own travel and self-study. When Watzek died in 1973, Yeon purchased the house and lived in it until his death in 1994.
The impact of Yeon's Watzek house design was amplified when photographs of it were published in the New York Museum of Modern Art's (MOMA) publication Built in USA—1932 - 1944, seven years after its construction. As one of the first West Coast homes to receive publicity of any kind at the national level, the house's inclusion signified the emergence of serious architecture and a distinct style in this part of the country.
Oregon "lumberman" Aubrey Watzek began looking for an architect to design a house for him to live in with his elderly mother in the early 1930's. Extensive use of wood—both inside and outside— is appropriate for the house of a client who made his fortune in lumber.
At 13,000 square feet (142 feet by 93 feet), this is not a small house. It consists of five bedrooms (one each for the owner and his mother, a guest room, and two staff bedrooms), four bathrooms, living room, library, kitchen, dining room, and finished basement. Custom features include four fireplaces, a sleeping porch, built-in storage, concealed gutters and downspouts, flush wood cabinets, a flower sink, an elevator to bring wood up from the basement, a vault, storage for fire suppression equipment, and horizontal blinds that disappear into the framing above the windows.
The house is arranged in a square plan around a central court, with the garage and covered walkway enclosing the southern portion of the square. Service areas, including the kitchen and staff bedrooms, are located in one wing. The library and living room form the northern wing, and the final wing houses two large bedrooms. The view of Mt. Hood is shared by the living room, library, guest room, and mother's room. Each wing has a separate roof with identical slopes. When seen from the driveway approach, Mt. Hood is visible beyond the house. The slope of the roofs matches the slope of the mountain, a phenomenon visible in most of the magazine pictures of this house.
Yeon manipulated ceiling height between rooms to enhance contrast between spaces. The living room has a twelve-foot coffered ceiling. One bedroom features a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and another has a raised wood ceiling surrounded by crown molding. Yeon designed much of the movable furniture, including the custom chaise in the Mother's Bedroom. Other furniture used in the house included designs by Alvar Aalto.
The house is located on a sloping site in the west hills of Portland, Oregon, in what was originally a rural location. Yeon was an early environmentalist and actively worked to protect the Oregon landscape. In his landscape design, the area around the outside of the house features native plants.
Originally designed to have a weathered appearance, the house was subsequently painted by Watzek. After Yeon purchased the house, he allowed the paint to weather off to expose the original wood patina.
As the main point of entry to the house, the central courtyard functions as an outdoor room. It combines Asian and Northwest style elements. The central courtyard is paved with flagstone. A reflecting pool in the northeast corner is inhabited by lilies and ornamental fish. Although Yeon preferred to work with native materials for landscaping, the courtyard contains eye-catching wisteria. A loggia provides a sheltered path to the front door.
The most-photographed feature of the house is the living room with its twelve-foot ceiling that frames a view of Mt. Hood, located sixty miles away. The ceiling is coffered in noble fir. The grain of the wood alternates direction between panels. Paneled walls are of noble fir, finished with wax that preserved the original wood color. Opposite the view of Mt. Hood is a contrasting wall that encloses a small seating area. Built-in storage here holds audio-visual equipment (which at the time consisted of a record player and a film projector). Travertine surrounds the fireplace.
The library's main feature, besides the stunning view of Mt. Hood, is the built-in shelving and seating. Wood paneling is clear pine. A marble fireplace surround anchors the room at one end. Built-in bookcases in the repeat the room's window proportions, echoing the window casings in the placements of the vertical bookcase supports.
Floor-to-ceiling windows are framed by paneled walls painted in white. Built-in buffets provide storage and maintain the streamlined look of the house. The ceiling is covered in canvas a coral color, which highlights the custom chandelier. This room originally included a custom dining table.
All wood surfaces in this room are painted, giving it a different character from the rest of the house. Marble surrounds the fireplace.
The homeowner's suite includes large closets, an exterior entrance, a sleeping porch, a bathroom, and access to a utility room.
Located in the northeast corner of the house, the guest bedroom's location provides solitude for both the guest and the homeowner. Wood paneling is clear pine.
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