TOP: Paula Acker looked for furniture that was “minimalist and uncluttered.” The crisp white modern shapes are warmed up with a tribal rug and colorful accent pillows. MIDDLE: Paula Acker relaxes in her front room. A single slab of granite from the Rebuilding Center adds interest above the “fireplace,” actually an energy-efficient wood-burning stove. BELOW: An alcove off the living room serves as the TV room. A tall, narrow window in the corner provides a peek from the front entrance onto the far wall. Greg Acker designed it to frame a view of a tall, narrow sculpture. //Photos by Paula Watts

Step through the front door of this hillside home and face an expansive view of sky and cityscape. Floor-to-ceiling glass, white walls and pale-gray tile floors create an airy feel. Even normally enclosed spaces, hallways and stairways remain visually open with interior windows that welcome natural light into back corners and frame rooms into pleasing compositions. 

“I never tire of the view,” says Paula Acker. “The sky changes. The light changes.”

Seeing things in a new light is what the Paula and Greg Acker do best. She’s a therapist. He’s an architect. Greg was an early explorer of sustainable design and has become an expert in demand on international projects. The Portland couple met and married 37 years ago. They raised two sons, Andrew and Loren, in one of Greg’s first green designs. With the boys grown and gone, the time was right for change. 

The Ackers wanted to live small but still have space for an additional dwelling unit to rent. They wanted to live close in so they could walk to work but they also wanted an energy-efficient house rarely found in older neighborhoods. They found what they needed in an existing house in Portland Greg could modify. 

“It was just a little green stucco house, but the minute we walked into it, I knew Greg would want it,” says Paula. “It’s an architect’s site.”

They kept the original basement and infrastructure of the 1924 house in the northwest hills overlooking the city but not much else remains the same. The main living area is a relatively modest 1,500 square feet that accommodates an open kitchen, living and dining room, an alcove like TV room, and the master bedroom and bath. An additional dwelling unit and two home offices bring the total square footage to 3,000. They put in sustainable bamboo kitchen cabinetry and repurposed the old ones in the laundry room. Stainless steel forms the L-shape counter top, sinks and backsplash. A secondary workspace is topped with a thick slab of white marble with steel-gray streaks. Greg salvaged it from a remodeling job in California decades earlier, moving it from home to home without ever finding the right spot for it. 

“It was propped up against our garage at the last place,” says Paula with a laugh. “I said, Honey, you have to find a use for it or let it go.”