Tetherow Overlook House
Set at the summit of a gentle slope in Tetherow, a residential community just outside Bend, Oregon, the Tetherow Overlook House looks out across a dramatic landscape shaped by ancient volcanoes, basalt cliffs, pine forests, and crystalline streams. This region, part of the high desert plateau, is defined by its elemental wild beauty and vivid seasonal shifts. Responding to this richly textured environment, the house unfolds across a hillside blanketed in pumice, stepping down in terraces that trace the natural contours of the land.
Rather than confronting the landscape, the design by Hacker Architects seeks to carve itself into it—like a crafted response in wood and stone. Composed of three interlocking rectilinear volumes, the architecture balances horizontal and vertical lines with clarity and restraint. The massing gently integrates with the slope, while vertical wooden slats soften the heft of the structure, lending an airy rhythm to its modernist language. Elements such as cantilevered forms and recessed frames echo the surrounding geology while accommodating the extremes of a high-desert climate—offering shade, circulation, and openness in equal measure.
The program is distributed across three volumes: one houses a garage and studio, another accommodates bedrooms, and the third contains the kitchen and dining area. Totaling approximately 706 square meters, the house reveals itself gradually as one walks along the incline. Circulation flows organically between platforms shaped by the staggered volumes, while carefully framed views turn each window into a portal for visual meditation. Daylight filters through the wooden screens, shifting in intensity as the sun moves, and animating the interiors with a quiet, immersive cadence.
From the highest point of the site, visitors enter through a partially enclosed motor court framed by the garage platform and the projecting volume above. Inside, the material palette continues the natural language: floors, ceilings, and walls extend seamlessly between interior and exterior spaces, establishing a cohesive architectural atmosphere. A corten steel pivot door marks the entrance to the home’s central living level, where a series of steps connect a media lounge, living room, and kitchen. Each element is expressed in a minimal yet tactile vocabulary, with precise openings that frame the desert beyond like curated moments in a cinematic sequence.
The dining room occupies a slightly elevated cantilevered platform, providing both intimacy and unobstructed views of the landscape. Ascending a delicately screened stair, one reaches the upper floor, which houses the primary suite, an open workspace, and two guest rooms connected by a gallery-style hallway that remains visually linked to the living areas below. A second stairwell, discreetly located between the kitchen and living room, descends to a lower level embedded in the slope, where entertainment and spa spaces unfold—once again oriented toward the surrounding terrain. Throughout the house, nature is not merely observed but experienced. Through framing, layering, and modulation of light and material, the architecture becomes a medium for dialogue—allowing inhabitants of the Tetherow Overlook House to inhabit not only a structure but a living landscape.
Principal Designer | Corey Martin
Project Manager | Nicholas Hodges
Interior Designer | Emily Knudsen
Project Team | Nicolas Pectol, Nicolas Smith, Sohee Ryan
Contractor | KN Visions
Structural Engineering | Madden & Baughman Engineering
Landscape Design | Szabo Landscape Architecture
Lighting Design | O-
Location | Tetherow, Bend, Oregon, USA
