The newly completed home in The Tree Farm neighborhood doesn’t announce itself from the driveway. Instead, it takes visitors along a low concrete wall. This wall whispers of possibilities hidden from sight. Adjacent to the driveway, a covered entry offers a moment of intimacy and shelter. That initial restraint soon gives way to a revelation. An expansive wooden door pivots inward, opening the interior like a wide-angle lens. In the great room, broad panes of glass frame a pine forest and slivers of mountain beyond. [Photo above by Adam Rouse, Courtesy of Feldman Architecture]
That approach reflects the shared values of Feldman Architecture based in San Francisco and of homeowners, empty nesters who relocated to Bend during the pandemic. Together, they prioritized privacy while embracing a modern design attuned to an active, outdoor-focused lifestyle. The project is the firm’s first in Central Oregon, an expansion into mountain environments for founder and CEO Jonathan Feldman, who recalls Bend as one of his favorite towns during graduate school at the University of Oregon.
Nesting the Home Into the Landscape
Rather than building upward from street level, Feldman’s team nested the structure into the site. The layout is organized into two wings linked by a glass-walled breezeway. “Where they had neighbors, we created courtyards instead of windows facing them, so we could form a protected outdoor space,” Feldman said.
“The finished result had to be perfect.”
Inside the Two-Wing Design
The couple’s private quarters form a linear arrangement beneath a flat roof, with a primary suite, three guest bedrooms, an office, gym and sauna. An open courtyard shares space with a lap pool set discreetly behind the concrete screening wall. Heated year-round and covered during colder months to retain warmth, the pool supports one of the homeowner’s regular workout routines and has become a favorite spot for visiting guests.
Perpendicular to the private wing, the great room sits beneath a sloped roof that spans the living, dining and kitchen areas, supported by a large diagonal black metal beam. The beam “rises toward a corner where your eye naturally wants to follow,” said Humbeen Geo, Feldman’s senior job captain. Emphasizing the corner glazing and the view to the field beyond, he added, was better than creating a broader wall of glass, which would have drawn attention to the neighboring home.
Designing for Views Without Sacrificing Privacy
He also describes an early decision by the homeowners “to pick our one place” to spend on glass and views—west, downhill through the pines—and then mitigate glare and heat with layered solutions. Large windows and sliding glass doors along the room’s west side dissolve into an outdoor patio, where the family often dines on summer evenings as bright sunlight softens into dusk.
A Home Built on Precision
While the architecture reads as calm and uncomplicated, achieving that clarity required significant coordination. “There’s an enormous amount of glass in the house,” said builder Josh Wilhite of Copperline Homes. He noted that more glass makes the structure more complicated, even if the result looks simple.
In the great room, a horizontal band of black metal conceals roller shades, bug screens, and indirect lighting. Vertical sliding wood slats provide an extra buffer against the sun and heat. These wood ceilings also introduce warmth, softening the expanses of concrete and steel.
Materials: Glass, Concrete and Steel
If glass is the home’s extrovert, concrete is its grounding introvert. Though it appears simple, radiant heat is embedded in the floors, and long, exposed concrete sections demanded precision. “The finished result had to be perfect,” Wilhite said.
Even the dramatic black metal exhaust tubes above the cooktop—a strong design element in the great room—required a total rebuild after the first fabricated pipes system failed.
A Home That Settles Into Its Surroundings
The home is a cohesive composition that explores the homeowners’ lifestyle and love of simple lines and neutral tones in a dwelling that settles quietly into its wooded setting rather than competing with it. As one homeowner put it, the design “doesn’t disrupt the natural environment, but fits into what’s already there. Feldman did a fantastic job. This house really fits our profile and what we were looking for.”
Builder: Josh Wilhite, Copperline Homes | Architect: Jonathan Feldman, Tai Ikegami, Heera Basi, Humbeen Geo, Drew Curran and Norman Wong, Feldman Architecture | Landscaping: Cahill Design Studio | Landscape Installation: Outdoor Innovations | Metalwork: Iron Environments | Lighting Design: Kim Cladas Lighting Design | Civil Engineer: Sun Country Engineering | Structural Engineer: Walker Structural Engineering
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