Introduction

Tucked into the wooded folds of Beaverton’s Highland Hills neighborhood, the Taliesen Tract houses one of the most captivating architectural secrets of the Pacific Northwest: the Rummer home. Revered for its iconic mid-century modern lines, integrated landscaping, and celebration of light and space, this distinctive residential typology captures the spirit of west coast modernism with a uniquely regional voice. Today, we step inside one such home—a pristinely preserved Rummer—in the Taliesen Tract for an in-depth exploration of its design, construction, and enduring architectural legacy.

Historical Origins: The Birth of the Rummer Home

Born from a moment of inspiration, the Rummer home emerged after Oregon developer Robert Rummer’s wife toured Joseph Eichler’s pioneering subdivisions in California. Struck by their openness, natural light, and community-centric planning, Robert Rummer sought to transplant this vision to the misty landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. Collaborating with influential architect A. Quincy Jones—best known for his work with Eichler—Rummer adapted the California modernism ethos to his region’s cooler, wetter climate. Between 1959 and 1975, over 750 Rummer homes were built around the Portland metro area, with Highland Hills and its Taliesen Tract among the most architecturally significant examples.

Distinguished by some of the most uncompromised iterations of Rummer’s design ideals, the Taliesen Tract offers case studies in climate-adapted, regionally expressive mid-century modern housing.

Design Principles: Hallmarks of the Rummer Typology

Every Rummer home holds a distilled clarity of form and purpose, rooted in post-war ideals of affordable luxury, light-filled spaces, and a spatial continuity between inside and out. The Taliesen Rummer we examine exemplifies these characteristics:

• Post-and-beam construction: Structural loads are carried through exposed beams, eliminating the need for interior load-bearing walls. This not only enables expansive open planning but celebrates the home’s structural logic as an aesthetic expression.
• Central atrium: The heart of the home is an open-air, skylighted courtyard. Framing this void, rooms radiate with extensive glass facades. This central void functions simultaneously as an arrival point, climatic buffer, and daylight well. The lush Japanese-inspired planting within introduces both texture and tranquility.
• Floor-to-ceiling glazing: Glass walls dissolve the distinction between interior and exterior, creating dramatic transparency and reinforcing the Rummer mantra of “bringing the outside in.” In Taliesen’s wooded context, this lends the home an immersive connection to nature.
• Single-story plan: Accessibility is seamless throughout. Circulation flows intuitively from one space to another, with no level changes—an ethos that prefigures today’s conversations around aging-in-place and universal design.
• Vaulted ceilings: Select rooms, such as the living area and primary suite, feature tongue-and-groove wood ceilings soaring upward between deeply raked beams. This vertical spaciousness enhances volume and captures the movement of natural light.
• Material palette: The walls are clad in long, horizontal lines of redwood siding, while interiors harmonize tongue-and-groove cedar ceilings, aggregate concrete floors, and minimalist casework, reinforcing the home’s naturalistic DNA.

Building Techniques: Innovation Behind the Form

More than an aesthetic undertaking, Rummer’s architectural vision was bolstered by technical ingenuity suited to Oregon’s climate. Working with principles adapted from A. Quincy Jones’ modular planning, Rummer devised innovative solutions that enabled fast, efficient, and high-performance construction:

• Modular grid system: The hallmark six-foot-four-inch post spacing provided a standardized rhythm that dictated entire bays of glass, sliding doors, and framing. This modularity enabled efficient on-site assembly and consistency of detail.
• Double framing: To combat heat loss in Oregon’s damp climate, walls incorporated double construction with added insulation, surpassing the thermal performance of their Eichler counterparts in California.
• Radiant slab heating: Departing from conventional forced air, radiant heat via PVC piping embedded beneath the concrete slab provided even, silent, and efficient warmth. This early use of plastic piping offered a cost-effective, corrosion-resistant alternative to copper.
• Integrated services: Kitchens—often galley-style with original Thermador appliances—and Roman-style sunken baths were seamlessly integrated into the floorplate, reducing mechanical clutter and preserving minimalist lines.

Inside the Taliesen Tract: A Case Study in Preservation

The Rummer home featured here in the Taliesen Tract has garnered attention for its exceptionally preserved architectural integrity. While many Rummers have been lightly renovated to modern standards, this property maintains its original atrium, unpainted wood ceilings, and signature opaque glass-panel front door. Updates have been sensitively implemented: a discreetly modernized kitchen retains the original galley configuration, and radiant systems have been retrofitted with contemporary heat sources while preserving under-slab tubing.

Outdoor elements have also been carefully preserved. The Japanese-inspired landscaping combines gravel beds, lantern paths, low horizontal fences, and sculptural maples to blur the transition between interior courtyards and perimeter gardens. Seen through floor-to-ceiling glazing, the landscape becomes a living tableau.

Comparative Analysis: Rummer vs. Eichler vs. Global Midcentury

To fully appreciate Rummer’s contribution to modernist housing, it’s enlightening to contextualize his work alongside similar developments:

Lessons for Architects and Homeowners

For contemporary architects, builders, and homeowners, the Taliesen Tract’s Rummer homes offer enduring lessons:

• Integrate passive strategies: Orientation, glazing, and radiant heating systems demonstrate early green design thinking, achieving comfort without mechanical complexity.
• Design for spatial transparency: By using consistent floor levels, post-and-beam systems, and glass walls, Rummer created fluid interiors that feel expansive, interconnected, and alive.
• Use material honesty and restraint: Natural finishes like redwood, exposed concrete, and warm-toned timber offer not just durability, but also a cohesive architectural language.
• Bridge architecture and landscape: Courtyards, gardens, and transitional spaces offer psychological breathing room—spaces for pause, regeneration, and visual delight.

As Rummer’s name is revived by developers like sustainability champion Aubrey McCormick, new construction inspired by original Rummer typologies may carry these principles forward, merging design history with future-forward sustainability.

Conclusion: A Legacy That Inspires

Robert Rummer’s architecture is far more than a regional curiosity; it stands as a benchmark for Pacific Northwest modernism. His Taliesen homes, like the one we’ve explored, fuse Bauhaus rationalism with Oregon vernacular logic—a compelling example of residential design that is both globally inspired and site-specifically adapted.

Whether you are restoring a Rummer, designing in its spirit, or simply admiring its legacy, the lessons embedded within these homes—clarity of structure, lightness of living, connection to nature—remain as relevant today as they were in the 1960s. As we continue to seek architectural solutions that are sustainable, human-centered, and timeless, the Rummer home offers more than just a model. It offers a philosophy.