William Kaven Architecture

10/13/2026

“The most sustainable building is the one that’s been around the longest; something that will have value for generations. It’s designing something that nobody’s going to tear down; that’s where the longevity story is really important.” — Trevor William Lewis, W/K Partner, Western Art & Architecture

That idea shapes how we approach every project, and Royal II is one place we’ve put it into practice. The house steps down a steep slope overlooking Portland’s Forest Park, built from a simple palette of dark steel, concrete, glass, and a custom bronze-black cladding that sits quietly among the Douglas firs. A green roof wraps the house, and a filtration planter built into the concrete retaining wall is part of its water reuse system. Inside, white oak floors and neutral walls keep the focus on the woods outside.

We hope it’s a house that has earned its place on the hill for generations to come.

See the project at williamkaven.com

GC: Metcalf Design & Construction
Structural Engineering: Butler Consulting, Inc.
Civil Engineering: KPFF Portland + Eugene
Photography: Jeremy Bittermann / Joel B Sanders Agency

10/07/2026

Royal II is part of our Royal series above Forest Park, and the kitchen is where the plan evolved most during the design process. The owners, one of whom is a professional chef and bestselling food writer, bought the house while it was still in the design and development phase. They asked us to enlarge the kitchen and add a spacious pantry to support recipe development, stocking, and filming, so we moved it to the center of the plan.

The counter now works as an informal dining area and a place to stage cooking demonstrations and videos. White oak cabinetry, quartz counters, and neutral walls keep the finishes quiet so the forest stays the focus. Thin walnut inlays in the oak floor demarcate the kitchen, dining, and living areas.

Custom built-in shelving along the kitchen and dining room walls holds a culinary library, with room to display the owner’s own cookbook series.



📸 Jeremy Bittermann / Joel B Sanders Agency

10/06/2026

On a recent visit to our Hood River residence to check on the landscaping, we caught Mt. Adams reflected in the curtain wall.

The new plantings and boulders are still settling in, but the house is already doing what we hoped: reflecting the landscape it sits in.



Architecture/Interiors: William Kaven Architecture
General Contractor: Don Tankersley & Co
Structural Engineer: KAEKO, Inc.
Civil Engineer: KPFF Portland + Eugene
Landscape Consulting: Shapiro Didway
📸 Trevor William Lewis

10/05/2026

Happy World Architecture Day.

Pictured: Camp MINOH (Charlevoix, MI)
📷 Daniel Kaven

09/23/2026

We’re proud to share that Forbes has named William / Kaven Architecture to two 2026 lists: America’s Top 200 Residential Architects and America’s Best-In-State Residential Architects.

Both lists are the product of a rigorous review by a regionally diverse advisory board of experts on American residential architecture, who evaluated each candidate based on overall body of work, one exemplary project, and a set of guiding principles spanning siting, materials, spatial configuration, and environmental response.

In its writeup, Forbes described our homes as ones that “burrow into the landscape like grown-up treehouses, with breathtaking results.”

Congrats to all of the other firms on the lists — and thank you to the Forbes team, the Advisory Board, our clients, and the consultants, builders, and craftspeople who make our work possible.

🔗 See link in bio to view full lists.

09/22/2026

W/K’s Daniel Kaven is speaking at the AIA Oregon ODC26 (AIA Oregon Design Conference) this Thursday.

Daniel Kaven’s talk, “Architecture of Normal,” argues that America’s built environment has largely evolved in reaction to transportation advances (trains, cars, planes) rather than through intentional, human-centered design. That pattern has produced the strip malls, big box stores, parking garages, motels, and tract housing that define so much of what we call “normal” architecture. With drones, flying taxis, autonomous cars, and rockets poised to reshape our cities next, Kaven makes the case for imagining their impact now, before they reshape us instead.

He’ll draw on the research behind his book of the same name (Architecture of Normal, Birkhäuser, 2022), to propose ways in which we might guide transportation systems toward more energy-efficient, design-forward, and socially connected urban environments.

If you’re at ODC26, join us:
“Architecture of Normal: The Colonization of the American Landscape”
Presented by Daniel Kaven, AIA, William/Kaven Architecture
Thursday, September 24, 2026
9 - 10am
Portland Hilton Downtown

🔗 More information and register at link in bio.

09/17/2026

“Located across the street from the iconic ‘Hung Far Low’ sign, Block 33’s U-shaped design mixes the new with the old without kitsch—think glass and aluminum on top, brick on the bottom. According to Kaven, the new residences and office space will help bridge the adjacent hoods of Old Town and the Pearl, divided physically and symbolically by NW Broadway.”

— Marty Patail, Portland Monthly Magazine Portland Monthly

BLOCK 33
Portland, OR
Unbuilt

Learn more on our website

09/09/2026

Thanks to design portland for including our Broadway Corridor project in UNSEEN PORTLAND ARCHITECTURE, on view now at the JK Gill Building. The show surveys architectural designs and visions for the city that, for one reason or another, never came to be.

It was inspiring to see so many bold visions for the city’s future in one room at last week’s opening. If you missed it, the exhibition is open Fridays and Saturdays, 12–6pm, through October 17, at the JK Gill
Building (408 SW 5th Ave, Portland, OR).

Learn more about the show at the link in our bio.

The Broadway Plan is our proposed redevelopment of Portland’s Broadway Corridor, a conceptual plan for roughly 5 million square feet of new development across multiple high-rise buildings with a mix of retail,
office, hospitality and residential uses. The concept removes the Broadway ramp to reconnect Union Station to the Pearl District, replacing it with a pedestrian-centric district organized around an
extension of the North Park Blocks. The plan also integrates a marquee transportation hub for high-speed rail and underground mass transit adjacent to Amtrak’s Union Station. Learn more on our website.

09/02/2026

Steel stairs with a view at our Elements residence in Mosier, Oregon.

08/27/2026

We're pleased to share this drone footage shot out at our Hood River Residence a couple of months ago as construction was finishing up.

FULL VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/1221293995?share=copy

Landscaping is still in progress, and there will be much more to show in terms of the surrounding plantings in the coming weeks, but this is a great preview of this incredible house, its orientation to the Gorge, and the roofline from above.

HOOD RIVER RESIDENCE, OREGON
Architecture/Interiors: William / Kaven Architecture
General Contractor: DON TANKERSLEY & CO.
Structural Engineer: KAEKO, Inc.
Civil Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
Landscape Consulting: Shapiro Didway

Home in Hood River, Oregon by William / Kaven Architecture.