River West Quadplex
Four cottage-scale homes half a block from the river, designed on a steep in-town lot to bring neighborhood-priced density without overpowering the street.
Location
Bend, OR
Category
MHLD
Year
2025
ROLE
Architect, Hiatus Homes
A four-unit middle housing project on a tight in-town lot, three doors from Pioneer Park and the river. The owner lives a few blocks away, had already built her own ADU years earlier, and cared about getting the scale right: four detached cottages priced for someone working at Mt. Bachelor, not someone moving from Portland. The site drops twelve feet from sidewalk to rear alley, with four Hiatus cottage units each needing their own utility easements, clearances, and stormwater. The design move that solved it: two shorter single-level units hold a neighborhood-scale frontage on the street, and two taller three-story units tuck into the rear, loading off the alley and using the grade change so they stay below the south sun line. The slope under the front units became crawl-space storage sized for kayaks and paddleboards. Each front unit got an exterior bike box for two mountain bikes, or skis in winter. Small moves, but they're the difference between a standard unit and one that fits how people in Bend actually live.
I managed MHLD feasibility through permitting: balancing the owner's program against what the lot would hold, coordinating civil engineering from the first sketch, and navigating an expedited middle housing land division plus four building permits at once. I wrote the 18-page burden of proof the MHLD required, approved with only minor corrections. Plans were detailed enough that GMP pricing came in on budget at contract signing. As construction approached I built the owner a fee-release schedule so she could see when she'd owe what to whom, and lined up the surveyor for the construction staking that matters on a site where inches count. Construction began mid-2026.
IMAGE CREDIT:
Hiatus Homes
