Soap Creek Modern
A rural property near Soap Creek Road needed a guest house that could hold its own next to the main residence. Clean lines, natural materials, a modern sensibility that still belongs in the Willamette Valley.
The property
Soap Creek Road runs north out of Corvallis into rolling farmland and oak savanna. The property is 5 acres: a contemporary main house, a barn, meadow, and a creek. The owners wanted a guest house for visiting family — something modern that matched the main residence’s clean aesthetic but felt like its own place, not an afterthought.
Modern in the valley
Modern architecture in rural Oregon is a conversation about belonging. You can’t drop a glass box in a meadow and pretend it’s contextual. What you can do is use clean lines while grounding the building with honest materials: board-formed concrete at the base (the same concrete as the barn foundation), vertical cedar siding (local, durable, will silver to match the oaks), and a low roof profile that doesn’t compete with the tree line.
Inside out
The design is organized around one idea: the view from inside looking out. The living wall is almost entirely glass — a 16-foot opening that slides completely away, erasing the boundary between interior and covered deck. When it’s open, the guest house is really just a roof over the meadow with a bed attached. Concrete floors inside continue through the threshold to become the deck surface, reinforcing the seamlessness.
Partnership
This project was designed in partnership with dC Design and Consulting. The collaboration brought together their expertise in modern residential with my construction-phase management. It’s a model I’d repeat — two perspectives making the work sharper.
720 sf
1 + sleeping loft
Board-formed concrete, vertical cedar, steel
16-foot sliding glass wall
5-acre rural property, oak savanna
Polished concrete, continuous interior to exterior
Drake Architecture · In partnership with dC Design and Consulting