builders
Construction firms specializing in peerless residences
Northwest Lakehouse in Lake Oswego, OR 6,000 square feet 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms
Green Gables Design & Restoration INTEGRATED DESIGN AND COLLABORATIVE PHILOSOPHY WORK WELL FOR DESIGN-BUILD FIRm
The relationship between the outdoors and indoors was very important to this home’s owners. So, Green Gables took full advantage of spectacular Lake Oswego views and developed wider entryways that create a flow between interior living spaces and the natural exterior. The design also includes plenty of spaces for outdoor living.
by Amy Lemen When it comes to dynamic home projects, Lindley Morton has always designed and built at the same time, so it was only natural to start a firm that specialized in just that. More than 30 years after its founding, Morton’s firm, Portland, Oregon-based Green Gables Design & Restoration, is known for its highly detailed homes and its dedicated craftsmen. “Because of the nature of our work, everything we do is custom,” Morton says. “At the end of the day, we do things we can be proud of—whether it’s a mansion or a tree house.” That strategy has worked for Green Gables. The company doesn’t do any advertising at all—not even allowing contractors to put up signs on jobs—yet it has managed to generate a healthy list of clients, all of them by word-of-mouth. “We lead with our reputation and do the best job we can for every client,” Morton says. “It’s all about pleasing the client— that’s always the goal for us.”
24
luxury home quarterly
june 2011
The firm’s work ranges from kitchen and bath projects to whole house remodels to new construction jobs between $500,000 and more than $12 million. Green Gables has done much of its work along the Pacific coast, from Portland, Oregon, up through Washington and all the way to Vancouver, British Columbia. The firm has also done design projects in Hawaii and Utah—often for clients who have used the firm already for their primary home and who now want a vacation home. For example, the firm has designed several homes on Lake Oswego as relaxing, gorgeous family retreats. One of the homes, known as the Northwest Lakehouse, is owned by people who requested their home have a strong relationship with the outside. Morton built the home to take maximum advantage of the surrounding views and installed wide entryways that better connected the home’s interior and exterior. “The house that fits with its
luxuryhomequarterly.com