Omey House Tour Report
For those of you who missed the Omey House tour last weekend, faithful GreenPDX member John Veneruso for his visually beautiful report. Thank you, John! Read all about it here:
The Omey House, located in the Overlook neighborhood, just a few minutes from University of Portland and downtown Portland, is a warm, highly-livable modern house built on the structure of a 1925 house. It’s made of 90% recycled materials that are integrated into the original structure. By combining the skills of numerous artists, structural experts, hard-working craftsmen (who own genuine work-aged, pick-up trucks), re-use prowess, and the labor of many friends and neighbors, this old house was reborn within the same footprint as a tremendously energy efficient home, with significantly more square footage, and a flowing open floor plan that is so comfortable that as the owner you’ll be eager to entertain up to 30 people, and as a guest, you’ll never want to leave.
Upon setting sights on the house, you’ll quickly spot a sizeable, beautiful living roof, brimming with diversity, that is part of a site-wide system of water collection. The sweeping porch is built with large, exposed timbers that are reminiscent of Skamania or Timberline lodge, promising to shelter you even during the harshest of winter storms. Art work, made of shaped metal and an urbanite (recycled concrete) retention planter, combine to funnel the water during even the harshest of gully-washers into the large backyard that can easily absorb the water. As you look closer at the house siding, with its dark, almost mahogany colored horizontal planks, you’ll see glimmers of a weather an insulation system. It begins with horizontal wood that was deemed too inferior for commercial use, yet given the care and attention it’s received prior to installation, it works to shield the house from direct rain and sun. Behind the siding is a mesh that keeps bugs and debris out of vertical channels that enable drying air to move from the ground upward. Behind the channels is a thick layer of foam insulation, some of which was reclaimed, saving it from being dumped in Eastern Oregon. Unlike fiberglass insulation that is placed between 2×4’s, this insulation wraps solidly around the house’s frame, providing excellent energy performance and dramatically reducing airflow into the household envelope.
As you glance up at the roof, you’ll see something unusual for the neighborhood, a sunny, classic metal roof that was carefully designed to be the host to a large photovoltaic solar power array. The plan is to not just break-even, but to actually use it to print money after 10 to 15 years. As part of the roof upgrade, wood beams and plywood sheeting were chosen for their green-local availability and assembled to contain more than R-50 worth of insulation.
Indoors, the 3 stories of space beckons to be explored. The main floor, which has a radiant heating system beneath its rich hard-wood floors, finds a new use for a recycled bowling alley floor as a rectilinear kitchen island. A wood burning stove, with 360 degrees of sightlines, can keep the house extra cozy. The dining room wall was pushed out and cantilevered to provide extra space for a welcoming, reclaimed wooden, cut-to-fit quadrilateral table. The landing at the bottom of first set of stairs to the bottom level is covered with a colorful mosaic that artfully blends the concepts of flowing water, and other natural imagery. Lighted nooks show off the historic lap-plaster walls as sunlight pours through a skylight that moves light through all three floors. On the 3rd floor, the Master bedroom’s strategically placed windows create a soft light that suffuses the space, which includes a ¾ height wall that separates the main bedroom from the walk through closet area. A balcony sports metal work that is easily mistaken for something truly organic as reclaimed metal tools and other objects that were warped and shaped find a new lease on an inspiring life.
The Omey house demonstrates that you can take something old that would otherwise be bulldozed, scrapped, or forgotten on Craigslist, and transformed into something that is inviting, and fills you with light and inner-energy, while at the same time doing wonderful things with the rain and sunlight that arrive throughout the year.
After the tour and potluck, we also enjoyed a tour of Mike Suri’s Iron Studio. Mike uses his talented metal smith skills to produce public art around Portland and commission pieces for private collectors. He has done numerous creative projects for the Omey House, such as rainwater catchment art and banister railings and screens. He also uses old school equipment you wouldn’t want pets or small children to go near. Check out his work at Suri Iron, Inc.
SAVE THE DATE! 
