Oregon Garden – Gordon House

2015.05.28

Frank Lloyd Wright designed this house for Conrad and Evelyn Gordon in 1957.  It was one of his last commissions (he died two years later) and his only project in Oregon.  Construction began in 1963 at the Gordon farmstead on the Willamette River, near Wilsonville.  Burton Goodrich — a Wright protege then practicing in Portland — oversaw construction.  The couple lived in the house until their deaths, with Evelyn passing in 1997.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden

The farm was sold in 2000 and the new owners planned to demolish it (the farm is now a residential neighborhood).  The Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy scrambled to attain a three-month delay and a new location for the house.  With Goodrich on hand to supervise, the house was dismantled and moved to the Oregon Garden in 2001.  The relocation, along with neglect over the years, required pouring a new foundation and replacing much of the concrete block walls and cedar siding.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden
Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House at the Oregon Garden