Tree House Retreat
Location: Bend, OR
Project Partners
Architect: Karen Smuland
Builder: Visionary Homes
Photography: Cheryl McIntosh
The pod-style layout allowed SZABO to create a network of distinct outdoor rooms that extend daily living in every direction. Two sheltered side courtyards provide intimate spaces tailored to the clients’ routines—a spa terrace tucked off the primary suite and a recreation patio near the guest wing—each oriented for sun, shade, and privacy at different times of day. The primary terrace, accessed directly from the main living area, is organized into a sequence of zones defined by paving and low walls: a central fire circle with a curved basalt seat wall and custom inlaid compass rose, flanked by a dining terrace and outdoor kitchen that mirror one another with raised planters and stone-clad counters for visual balance and wind protection. Just below, a regulation bocce court with ipe bumpers and integrated lighting invites friendly competition and draws activity outward, gently stepping the architecture back into native vegetation.
Set on a west-facing, two-acre slope in Bend’s Tree Farm neighborhood, this retreat is conceived as a series of low-slung pods that dissolve into the high desert forest. SZABO worked closely with the architect from the earliest stages to choreograph building placement, circulation, and views together, preserving mature ponderosa pines and native understory while framing long vistas to the Cascade Range. The home nestles between existing landforms, with grading kept to a minimum so that terraces, pathways, and walls feel grown from the site.
Material and planting choices reinforce the sense of quiet immersion in the landscape. Warm wood siding, basalt retaining walls, and honed concrete and stone paving establish a restrained, regional palette that foregrounds the surrounding forest and sky. Planting shifts from structured, drought-tolerant compositions near the house to looser drifts of grasses, shrubs, and forbs that blend seamlessly into the existing high desert plant communities. Throughout, we treated the forest as a living client: pathways bend to avoid significant trees, boulders are revealed rather than imported, and new elements are scaled to the broader landscape rather than the building alone.
Fire resilience and climate responsiveness were fundamental drivers for the project. Working within a fire-wise community framework, we selectively thinned and limbed pines to create safe crown spacing while preserving the wooded character the clients loved, and established ember-resistant buffer zones using crushed gravel, cobble mulch, and high-moisture, fire-adapted plant species. Water use is tightly controlled through native and drought-tolerant plantings paired with high-efficiency drip and rotary irrigation guided by on-site solar and evapotranspiration data, eliminating temporary systems once establishment was complete. The result is a retreat that feels effortless and serene on the surface, yet is carefully tuned to its high desert context—offering generous, multi-season outdoor living that will endure as both the family and climate evolve.
