SHOP TALK | “WHEN TALENTED PROFESSIONALS TALK, WE LISTEN.”
ADMIT IT, YOU HAVE AN INQUIRING MIND, AND YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE TEAM DESIGNING YOUR DREAM HOME. WE UNDERSTAND THE INCLINATION. SO WE DECIDED TO BRING YOU SHOP TALK CONVERSATIONS WITH THE TALENTED PROS DESIGNING, BUILDING, AND OUTFITTING YOUR HOMES. TAKE A DEEPER LOOK AT LIGHT HOUSE ARCHITECTURE + CONSTRUCTION.
LIGHT HOUSE ARCHITECTURE + CONSTRUCTION
RYAN WALSH, OWNER, ARCHITECT AIA
With a focus on high quality craftsmanship, natural daylighting, and sustainability, Light House Architecture + Construction has been designing and building new homes and remodels
in the Pacific Northwest since 2010.
(Previously DRW Design Build)
Left: Ryan Walsh & Project Manager Rick
WHAT SERVICES DO YOU OFFER?
We offer architecture, construction, and design build construction services for projects that are of architectural significance. By offering both architectural and construction services together whenever possible, we can offer a more streamlined process that is efficient and more concise than common architect vs builder scenarios. While we never shy away from design only projects, we love the opportunity to build our designed projects.
WHAT GEOGRAPHIC AREAS DO WE SERVE?
We primarily focus on the Portland metro area, but also complete work in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon Coast, and Bend. Ryan recently relocated to Hood River and splits his time there and in our main office in Portland. We currently have two large projects in Hood River and Light House staff is traveling accordingly.
EDUCATIONAL & ARCHITECTURAL EXPERIENCE:
Owner and architect Ryan Walsh earned a BA in Architecture and a minor in Architecture History from the University of Oregon, is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and has won multiple awards for his work.
Ryan grew up in Larchmont, New York, on Long Island Sound, close to the water. His architecture education began at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, in high school with a three dimensional art class. The fun combination of art, design, mechanics, and physics inspired Ryan to find his way to an internship with an architect during his junior summer on Martha’s Vineyard. He attended Syracuse University in the School of Architecture for his freshman year but then transferred to the University of Oregon School of Architecture for the remainder of
his studies.
During summers and a three year break from school, Ryan held various construction jobs, working for a large commercial general contractor, a small design build firm, a cabinet maker, and a landscape company and moved to Hood River. Re turning to school in 1996, he completed the five year professional degree and designed and built his first house in Eugene, Oregon, in the south hills for a client in 1998. After that experience, he understood that combining architecture and construction was truly rewarding and he wanted to pursue the design build format for his career. He then moved to Portland and worked for design build firm Green Gables for ten years, where he completed his three year internship with Hans Kretschmer and then passed the Architecture Board Exam.
WHAT SPECIALTIES DO WE HAVE IN HOUSE?
We are fortunate to employ highly skilled architects, onsite supervisors, and finish carpenters, along with in house estimators, project coordinators, and office staff.
Since 2000, Ryan has worked on hundreds of design build projects new houses as well as remodels, small and large.
DO YOU HAVE FAVORITE MATERIALS OR DETAILS TO USE OR A STYLE YOU PREFER OR ARE KNOWN FOR?
Materials. We emphasize cleanly detailed connections to the outdoors, prioritizing natural daylighting and taking advantage of locally sourced environmentally friendly materials. Oregon has a wonderfully diverse annual climate and we design houses to take advantage of this with large windows and doors that allow for expansive openings, outdoor covered spaces, and buildings that work with Oregon’s climate, not against it.
Style. The interplay of indoors and out can be wonderfully dynamic and complementary. Buildings that look at themselves, bending and creating exterior spaces that capture the sense of place outside while looking back inside capitalize on visceral experiences of warm and cool, wind and shelter, and the beautiful fluctuation of light in the day and night. We believe that the hands on process of putting something together with craftmanship can inform design, and design can inform construction. Doing them both allows for a beautiful partnership of learning back and forth. As architects first, we love projects that allow for our creative spirits to come to the forefront. Modern, contemporary houses most easily allow for this. We also love traditional form, old style houses. They both have beautiful attributes. In the end, the clients we serve must love their spaces once we are gone, so we approach each project with that in mind.
We emphasize cleanly detailed connections to the outdoors, prioritizing natural daylighting and taking advantage of locally sourced environmentally friendly materials.
-Ryan Walsh
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOOD AND A GREAT HOUSE?
Clarity and drama. Buildings that have clarity in their form, parts and pieces in plan and in three dimensions are beautiful. There also needs to be drama hierarchy small to big, dark to light, tight to expansive. We are complex beings and we need beauty in our lives everyday more than we need food. Artfully assembling the needed parts of a building to celebrate our many senses creates rich environments. We work to provide many different levels of connection in a house depending on the client by doing this, we build in the ability of someone to be alone, to be together, and everything in between.
Walking into an entry the art of being greeted and then being welcomed to come further into a more casual part of the house where we feel an expanse of space this, as an example, is an experience that allows various senses to activate, which creates emotion. This creates great spaces, great houses.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIY?
I love taking advantage of the opportunities our amazing region offers, especially windsurfing/sailing, surfing, and skiing. We spend a lot of time on the water and in the mountains and these experiences influence our design aesthetic. There are beautiful colors outdoors in Oregon. The Willamette Valley lushness, the turbulence of the Columbia Gorge, the wildness of the Oregon Coast, and the calm of the high desert of the east side of the Cascades they all have amazing colors and richness.
WHAT LOCAL WORK DO YOU ADMIRE?
There are many talented architects who have touched Oregon. One of my favorites is the work of Portland residential modernist John Storrs, a house I worked on by Richard Neutra, Pietro Belluschi, and the traditional residential work of AE Doyle, among many others.
whj SHOP TALK
