Creating a retreat for a family with small children, the project re-envisions a site with an existing home and barn and capitalizes on a view to a pond through mature oaks, with the challenge of transitioning from a central lawn into the surrounding natural landscape. Three new structures—a garage, a main house with two structures connected by an overhead roof plane, and a pool house—are organized around a pastoral view to the existing pond, and make use of adjacent vineyard, grassland, and forest. Circulation from the auto court is oriented through the existing oaks to the main house pavilion. The planting design reinforces a desire to use the lawn as the primary walking surface under the oaks, but replaces high water turf with a native selection requiring less mowing and water. Mulch zones have been created around the oaks to reduce irrigation, preserving them for generations to come. Beyond the lawn, a meadow edge recedes into grassland toward the pond. The notion of grassland is also carried up to the roof of the main house, with glimpses of the grasses from the auto court as well as out of the clerestory windows of the living room.
SunCity Takarazuka
Twenty percent of Japan’s population is 65 years or older and the demands for high quality residential communities for seniors is growing. Helping to meet that demand, SunCity Takarazuka is a new continuum of care retirement community in Takarazuka, a suburb of Osaka, Japan. The project, owned and operated by Half Century More Co., Ltd., a leader in Japan’s fa...
SunCity Yokohama
SunCity Yokohama is a continuum of care retirement community operated by Health Care Japan Co., Ltd., a leader in Japan’s fast growing senior housing communities. With Perkins Eastman Architects PC, SWA completed the master planning phase of the project and is providing schematic design. The plan consists of two single building “villages” connected...
South Waterfront Greenway
A bold new plan for the area along the Willamette River includes a 1-1/2 mile extension of the City’s downtown’s parks and the reclamation of the river’s edge for public recreation. Working closely with the City of Portland, developers, and natural resource advocates, the design team devised a rational plan that places access and activity in targeted nodes wit...
SunCity Tachikawa Showa Kinen Koen
SunCity Showa Kinen Koen takes its name from the beloved Koen National Park that borders the development to the east and south. Built to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Emperor Showa’s reign, the park offers an ideal setting for Half Century More’s flagship continuum-of-care retirement community, with 518 independent living units and 82 nursing...