When David Strand first saw snapshots of his clients’ property in Bandon on Oregon’s rugged south coast, his initial impression was of the natural splendor of the undeveloped site. “It’s an architect’s dream,” he says. “It’s on a bluff on the Pacific Ocean, with west-facing views and awesome sunsets. It overlooks a cluster of sea stacks and massive rocks that break the horizon line, drawing the eye further and further. I immediately envisioned them as the focal point of the home.”
He was also struck by a flash of déjà vu. “The rocks are so epic, and they reminded me of The Goonies, one of my all-time favorite childhood movies that’s become a cult classic,” adds Strand. “It’s an adventure story set on the Oregon coast, and I knew this project would be as thrilling as the film.”
Photography by Bryan Daugherty
Strand is the principal of Strand Design, a Minneapolis-based architectural design firm, and his clients live in San Antonio. The couple had spent several summers in Bandon golfing, gardening and escaping the stifling Southern heat, and when they found the oceanfront site, they commissioned Strand to design a modern vacation home. “Getting away from hot weather is a reverse migration from what we generally do in Minnesota,” says Strand with a laugh.
He’s designed numerous homes and retreats for clients in Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Bahamas, and every project is informed by his sophisticated aesthetic and infused with his abundant enthusiasm and wry sense of humor. “Designing a destination home is a choose-your-own-adventure, because you don’t want to end up with the same house you already have,” he says. “A second home should be comfortable and relaxing, but it also needs to jolt you a bit. It should be a fun and exciting place that revitalizes you, because it’s so different from your regular life. You’re buying a convertible, not a minivan.”
Strand’s process always begins with an immersive site visit. “I never want to design a home without seeing the land and experiencing the light,” he says. “I always study the site, as well as the region as a whole, to understand geo-technical requirements, engineering methods, building techniques and materials, and the local sentiment about architecture.” He flew to Portland, and made a brief visit to the historic city of Astoria, the actual setting for The Goonies, before continuing down the coast to Bandon.
“The road was closed, so I went off-road in my rented Subaru and drove along the beach,” he recalls. “When I reached the bluff, I backed up the car, almost to the edge, and climbed on its roof. Far below me, I could see this magical beach scene with ant-size humans collecting rocks and playing on the sand, and as I looked out at the ocean, the waves were crashing around the sea stacks. I was in pure amazement, and I wanted to create a house where the clients and their family and friends would always be in contact with these magnificent views.”
While the clients’ 70-foot-wide site offered incredible design inspiration, it also presented immense technical challenges, because small earthquakes and offshore tremors are facts of life in the Bandon area. “Designing and building a modern home on a Pacific Ocean bluff is an entirely different discipline than on a Northwoods lakefront property,” Strand muses. “Between the seismic liquification of soil (a real danger I’d never encountered before), ocean winds that can reach up to 50 miles per hour and the salt air — which destroys anything and everything it touches — it’s like skiing on double-black-diamond moguls versus cruising on a perfectly groomed intermediate slope.”
Working with a team of local geo-technical consultants and structural engineers, Strand designed a striking, 3,800-square-foot modern home with two long bars divided by a breezeway that allows wind to move easily around and through the structure. He set the home as low as possible into the site to create equally breathtaking views from the upper and lower levels and anchored the foundation with enormous pilings driven into the earth at angles that keep the house stable while allowing it to flow naturally with the seismic activity. Just as Strand had envisioned from the roof of his Subaru, the glassed-in breezeway also frames the view of the sea stacks, creating a dramatic sense of arrival.
“The view of these ancient rocks drives the design, which settles the lower level into the bluff while lifting the main living spaces to maximize the views,” he says. “The approach becomes an important part of the journey, creating another choose-your-own-adventure. When you arrive at the house, you can either continue down to the ocean or go through the breezeway and into the upper level, where the expanse of Kolbe windows in the living room, dining area and kitchen overlook the beach and the crashing waves. The primary suite and utility spaces on the lower level offer a private view path, inviting your eye to skate across the grasses and see the rocks and the ocean beyond.”
Inspired by the muted colors and textures of the weathered beach houses that blend naturally into the Oregon coastline, Strand clad the home in high-performance, thermally modified ash siding that honors the architecture while reflecting the local vernacular. When he returned to Bandon last summer to photograph the home, the siding, which he sourced from Duluth-based Arbor Wood Co., was developing a gentle patina that makes the structure appear to have always been part of the seascape.
“It was amazing to spend two days in the house,” Strand recalls. “The interiors, which we designed with Krissy Millner of Terra Firma Home, are soft, comfortable and filled with dynamic energy as the light travels over the house from east to west. The photographer and I were constantly marveling at how invigorating it felt to experience the home in person. The images we captured are stunning, but they can’t fully capture the perfect harmony of the bluffside home with the ocean and iconic rocks.”
Project Partners
Architect: David Strand Design
Interior designer: Terra Firma Home
Windows and doors supplier: Kolbe Windows & Doors
Wood siding: Arbor Wood Co.
