Editor’s Note: Portland Monthly’s “Property Watch” column takes a weekly look at an interesting home in Portland’s super-competitive real estate market (with periodic ventures to the burbs and points beyond, for good measure). This week: A stunner on NW Skyline Boulevard. Got a home you think would work for this column? Get in touch at [email protected].

The midcentury style, with its pioneering emphasis on window walls that connected inside and out, was made for a woodland setting, as this home high in the Forest Park neighborhood proves. Designed by architect Clive Kiehl and built in 1962, it has a front façade that doesn’t give much away. There are hallmarks of the original era in things like the low-pitched gabled roof, broad chimney, and exterior brick. But step inside, and it’s all sunlight and glass, with far-reaching views over the city, as well as close-ups into the trees.

A 2017 studs-out remodel dramatically altered the original interior, relocating the kitchen and co-opting a sunroom into the living and dining space. The result is a unified open plan topped with a vaulted ceiling. A new gas fireplace for the living room is flanked by sliding glass doors on either side. The original fireplace, with a new insert, anchors a seating nook off the main room. But all eyes tend to go to the dining room, where there’s a dramatic wall of glass that climbs to the ceiling, looking into the forest and side yard, and giving the entire interior a lovely secluded in-the-trees feel.

At the other end of the great room is the kitchen, chic with its custom cabinets, 10-foot island wrapped in a stone slab that waterfalls to the floor, and a Wolf stove deftly integrated into the counter. 

The primary suite is at the end of the hall on the main floor, and comes with its own fireplace, window seat, and walk-in closet. Downstairs, all three bedrooms also have fantastic city views, and although the fourth room doesn’t have a window, it does have the fourth fireplace in the house. There’s also a family room with large sliding glass doors to the backyard.

Multiple outdoor spaces create nooks tucked around the home that will cater to all sorts of moods. The large side patio is accessible from the front entry and through the dining room—via a door at a perfectly located bar for serving cocktails—all of which makes for easy flow for a party.

For more solitude, there’s the deck off of the kitchen, the primary bedroom’s private courtyard, and a protected alcove beside one of the downstairs bedrooms. Then, of course, the lawn: big enough to play a game of cornhole or croquet, and with a level grade that can be rare in this part of town.

 Listing Fast Facts

Address:  1801 NW Walmer Dr, Portland, OR 97229

Size:    3,490 square feet/4 bedroom/2.5 bath  

List Date:    9/8/2022  

List Price:  $1,700,000  

Listing Agent: Andrew Galler, Portland Is Home, Realty Works Group

Melissa Dalton is a freelance writer who has focused on Pacific Northwest design and lifestyle since 2008. She is based in Portland, Oregon. Contact Dalton here.