Perhaps it’s fitting that you could easily drive by this house on SW Dogwood Lane and not realize it’s there. After all, it was the longtime residence of John Yeon, renowned architectural designer and conservationist, who was an early proponent for preserving the Columbia River Gorge’s natural beauty and is considered one of the founders of the Northwest Regional style of modernism. And yet, for all that, the primarily self-taught Yeon has also been referred to as a “great unknown.”

Yeon designed this home Lane for photographer Victor Jorgensen, bought it from his client after returning to Portland in 1945 after World War II, and lived there until his passing in 1994. His surviving partner remained in the home until 2021, at which point it was listed and quickly sold. It’s now on the market again, giving us all a rare glimpse into an exquisitely preserved piece of Yeon’s legacy.

And that’s important, because for all of Yeon’s influence on Northwest architecture, he completed fewer than 20 houses. The first was the Watzek House in 1937, which then appeared in a 1939 book and exhibit by the Museum of Modern Art, titled Art in Our Time, alongside work by Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.

This house, called the Jorgensen House, was built in 1939, yet everything about it feels ahead of its time. For starters, while the street view reveals only a garage door and tangle of greenery, a long colonnade with an elegantly peaked roof leads you to the front door. It’s an entry sequence fitting for Yeon, who believed architecture should blend into its natural environment as though part of a singular composition, and the placement of the covered exterior walkway does that by protecting several mature trees on the 1.55-acre lot.

The front door is unassuming and a lovely peacock blue. That’s right: this house is so well-preserved that it even has the original paint colors, from the exterior greens, which Yeon said were meant to reflect the leaves on the nearby trees, to the custom shades inside, including the designer’s signature “Yeon Blue.”

Immediately inside is the living room, with ceilings more than 10 feet tall and walls covered in three-and-one-quarter-inch hemlock boards, a brick fireplace at the far end, and two-inch oak boards on the floors placed in alternating squares. Walls of windows on either side frame the natural landscape of the lot. Nothing hampers the sight lines, thanks to the louvered screens that open below the fixed panes, a Yeon invention. 

In fact, Yeon’s innovation can be found everywhere here, from the weatherized plywood exterior—he was an early adopter of the material—to the clever built-ins and even the lighting. (An exterior pendant made from a Japanese glass fishing float inspired a whole line at Rejuvenation.) In one corner, find a dining banquette that can seat six. A counter-weighted partition that doubles as art display allows the table to slide smoothly back into the kitchen for easy clean-up. A living room couch backed with shelving has a sleek brass handrail inset with lighting, while the primary suite headboard can be propped at an angle for lounging with a book.

The main floor has the primary suite, as well as two bedrooms and hall bathroom, while the downstairs can function as an independent suite in itself. It has a full kitchen, exterior entrance and patio access, living room with fireplace, and bedroom with a full bathroom. Walking trails crisscross the generous lot, but even more appropriate, perhaps, is the seven-acre wetland across the street, of which Yeon would have surely have approved.

Listing Fast Facts 

• Address: 4305 SW Dogwood Ln, Portland, OR 97225
• Size: 2,513 square feet/4 bedroom/3 bath 
• List Date: 4/29/2024  
• List Price: $1,679,000 
• Listing Agent: Marisa Swenson, Modern Homes Collective
• Styling: Jica Interiors

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. 

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