House

1st Place Winner

Project:

Cannon Beach Residence

Firm:

Nathan Good Architect, P.C.

503.370.4448

http://www.nathangoodarchitect.com

Size:

2,268 sf

Contractor:

Rick Elstrom Construction

Architect:

Nathan Good, AIA

Interior Designer:

Georgia Erdenberger, IIDA

Landscape:

George Erdenberger

Energy Consultant:

Charlie Stephens

Comment: “Very Oregonian, very green, very beautiful in a timeless, earthy way.” —Iris Harrell

From the 5 kWh rooftop photovoltaic system to the 12-inch-thick concrete form walls, the Root Awards’ winner in the House category is the epitome of sustainable building: a home that produces as much energy as it consumes (in fact, it’s been fully monitored by the Oregon Department of Energy). But this Oregon beach house is as easy on the eyes as it is on the environment—no small feat given its surrounding competition, backed up against Ecola State Park and overlooking Haystack Rock.

Architect Nathan Good describes the 2,268-square-foot house as a “womb with a view.” He contoured its L-shaped plan to wrap around an existing Sitka spruce that’s 38 inches in diameter. The structure blends into the forested hillside thanks to its sedum-sprouting green roof, which also helps to protect against fire. Good perfectly proportioned a south-facing bank of windows both to enjoy the views of Haystack Rock and to absorb the winter sun’s warmth through the concrete floors’ thermal mass. Clerestory windows bathe the house’s deepest recesses in natural light, while solar-thermal tubes provide hot water with a ground-source heat pump that warms and cools the air.

Good worked closely with interior designer Georgia Erdenberger and a handful of subcontractors and craftsmen to further blur the distinction between interior and exterior through the bold use of local materials: salvaged Douglas fir floors, hand-cut stair treads spiraling around a wind-felled tree trunk, and bathroom-floor mosaics of beach stones and handcrafted, custom tiles.

Complete with a cedar-shake rain screen cloaking it from the wind and the rain, the house is built to last more than a hundred years, Good says. But at the ripe age of three, it already feels historic.

- Randy Gragg