Residential Design: Tetherow Overlook

March 2025

Case Study: Tetherow Overlook House by Hacker Architects

Written by Cheryl Weber
Photography by Jeremy Bittermann/JBSA

Distinctive geological formations often inspire great architecture, and that is true of the Tetherow house, set amid the dry volcanic landscape of Central Oregon. Its landforms are relatively new in geological time, having been created from lava flows as recent as 1,300 years ago. This particular site also experienced a wildfire that burned all the trees and foliage, further exposing the undulating pumice slopes and cinder cones formed by volcanic eruptions. “Combined with the high-desert climate, it sets up a unique opportunity to see the landscape eroding before your eyes in real time,” says Hacker Architects principal Corey Martin. “The bones of the geology are exposed.”

His design capitalized on this terrain by subtly carving into it to create three concrete plinths for the house. Corey and his team created the platforms atop the natural pumice flows and anchored them to bedrock about 15 feet down. “The lava becomes molten rock, but the pumice is transported through the air by the explosive eruptions and flies everywhere,” Corey says. “You can get to the lava layers pretty quickly.”

The clients, who have two college-age children, were seeking a second home where they might eventually live full time. They work in the design industry—one was trained as an architect—and were interested in exploring new ideas about art and craft, as well as having places to display their own art. Hacker Architects responded with three wood-clad volumes that flow down the slope from roughly southwest to northeast. The upper platform holds the cedar-clad detached garage with a studio, bathroom, and storage area. Across the terrace, the front door opens to a multilevel main living space, composed of glass and stucco, with a cedar-clad bedroom volume floating above it. A third wooden volume, the dining room, sits on a platform that steps up from the kitchen.

The floor plan’s rise and fall metaphysically reflects the natural terrain. “We wanted to keep the forms and volumes pretty discrete to elicit that reaction to the volcanic landscape,” Corey says. “The main floor has several levels that move through the space between the volumes: the entry steps down to the living room and then down to the kitchen. That all happens under the large volume above you with the three bedrooms and an office. You step up from the kitchen into the dining room platform. The dining room box is totally discrete and legible from inside and outside, with windows all the way around and a clerestory between it and the kitchen.” Between the living room and kitchen, a staircase descends to the walkout lower level containing a spa and entertaining space.

Abstracted Landscape

Continuing the subtle landscape metaphor, the public zone is defined by chamfered plaster masses inspired by the region’s columnar basalt formations. They divide rooms, surround the media room and living room fireplaces, and embrace kitchen cabinetry. The fireplace masses continue up through the second floor. One surrounds a third fireplace in the primary suite above the media room. Above the living room, the other mass becomes an elegant display wall for the owners’ collection of prototype Danish pepper mills.

“We tried to abstract some of those geological features in a modern way,” Corey says. “The columns of solid basalt rock are prominent among the canyons. When they cool off, they fragment into angular columns of hexagonal rock. This house is spatially trying to recognize this geography but also introduce masses of abstracted forms that define spaces as you move horizontally through the house. We wanted you to feel that you were on the ground, between these columnar basalt pieces, and have it feel like a familiar Oregon landscape experience.”

Finely crafted wood screens also help to modulate space both inside and out. They separate the entryway from the living room, support a stairway, and subdivide the dining platform. Upstairs, a primary suite, open office area, sitting area, and two en suite guest bedrooms encircle an opening that looks down into the living room. This private upper realm is fitted with exterior louvers that shade sections of glass, creating atmospheric effects throughout the day as sunlight streams through the slats. “The upstairs outer box is made of crusty board and batten siding,” Corey says. “Sometimes the battens translate to become louvers in front of the glass, so you have layering and screening; you’re kind of on display to the other houses around it. We wanted to keep the box pure and not have too many window punches but still get the views you need up there.”

Meticulous window detailing preserves the purity of that box. The glass, held within slender frames, disappears down into the floor framing and up past the roof framing to create the effect of the glass spanning from ceiling to parapet. “There were many weeks of figuring out how to get it all to line up,” says builder Mike Taylor, explaining that the window system rests on thin steel supports that cantilever out from the structural steel floor system.

State of Flow

Textural contrasts between the cedar-battened exterior and the interior’s smooth Oregon white oak ceilings, floors, and cabinetry are further manifestations of landscape elements. “The weathering snags—dead trees burned in the fire—are still standing and really beautiful,” Corey says. “They turn silver, but when cut into, there is fresh wood inside. We wanted the clients to feel like they’re in this solid block of material that’s been carved inside and outside.”

The interior’s sparse, low-contrast palette of white oak and silver plaster evokes the snags’ silky core. Living room and kitchen floors are polished concrete, stepping up to wood in the foyer, dining room, and media room, while the kitchen’s stone countertops echo the silvery backsplash and fireplace massings.

It’s not only conceits but concealment that create intrigue: there is little here to snag the eye. Full-height doors on the bedroom level blend into the walls. Doors to the guest rooms pocket back into a central storage wall so the rooms can be opened to the light-filled corridor or closed for privacy. The door to the primary suite, too, is a hinged panel that tucks into the wall.

The stair to the second floor is another exercise in studied simplicity. The stair treads are hollow boxes made of solid white oak and detailed to allow movement for the oak to expand and contract. For the same reason, the intricately built louvers they attach to are hollow and have mitered joints, producing a consistent grain and dimensional stability. The all-electric house aims to live lightly environmentally as well, with air-source heat pumps for forced-air cooling and water-heated radiant floors. “We get extreme temperature changes from day to night, but there are times you can open the whole place up,” says Corey.

On the back side of the house, two more plinths step down the gentle slope, creating level outdoor terraces for entertaining, including a cooking area, firepit, and hot tub. The terraces and volumes interlock, supported by those faceted, monolithic masses. Indeed, the house offers up an immersive experience; abstracting the unique landscape reinforces the owners’ connection to it. “A lot of development here is imported,” Corey says. “This is a very different way of relating to this site, as part of a package.”