Dry Creek Cabin

Dry Creek Cabin sits 2,200 feet above the Columbia River Gorge near White Salmon, Washington. Designed by Fieldwork Design & Architecture for architecture and interiors, the house is approached from above, cut into the hillside so the roof reads nearly flush with the landscape and the road elevation stays quiet.

Concrete steps lead into a breezeway, or dogtrot, that splits the cabin into two pods: primary living to the southeast and guest rooms with a spa to the northwest. The passage frames views toward the Gorge and Mount Hood, gives shelter from winter Gorge winds, and lets summer breezes move through the site.

After deconstructing an earlier cabin on the property, the team reused existing wall framing along with the concrete foundation, slab, and retaining walls. A new gabled volume was placed on the existing foundation wall, and interiors were clad in local gray-washed lodgepole pine to mark the difference between retained structure and new work.

The project received a Merit Award from the AIA Oregon Architecture Awards and a Citation Award from ARCHITECT Magazine’s Residential Architect Design Awards. Collaborators listed by Fieldwork include ORANGE and SCE. Photography by Dana Klein.