HILLSIDE

HILLSIDE is a 2400-square-foot single-family residence designed by Prentiss Balance Wickline and completed in 2026. Sited on a long, narrow, forested slope scattered with large boulders, the house was shaped by the clients’ request for a practical and comfortable home for a family of five and by the challenging topography. The earliest concept, inspired by the owner’s U-shaped sketch embracing the site’s largest boulder, established the guiding priority for the project, with the footprint carefully adapted to fit the only buildable area. Limited space and the steep grade led to a solution placing a one-car garage beneath the main living areas, allowing the house to rise up in three levels along the hillside. The building is arranged as two wood-clad, shed-roofed volumes set perpendicular to each other, one containing bedrooms and the other the kitchen and living spaces, forming an L-shape. A glass and steel-clad connector—the entry and staircase—links these wings and includes a Douglas fir-lined nook referred to as the "nap room." The main living wing opens east toward a boulder-adjacent patio and west to a deck projecting into the forest canopy. The restrained material selection—concrete, untreated steel, Douglas fir, and white walls—frames views of the surrounding greenery and supports a minimal, modern aesthetic.

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