Sited on a prominent 0.39-acre corner lot, tucked into a private hillside on Southwest Portland’s esteemed Altadena Avenue—a quiet enclave renowned for its rare, architecturally significant modern estates—sits one such masterpiece. Built in 1956, the John R. Gatewood House presents an exceptional acquisition opportunity for the discerning collector who views residential architecture as a form of living art. While legendary figures like Pietro Belluschi and John Yeon defined the Pacific Northwest's mid-century design lexicon, contemporaries like John R. Gatewood masterfully executed these ideas on an intimate, highly residential scale. After graduating from the University of Oregon’s architecture school in 1952, Gatewood set out to design a custom retreat specifically for his own family, completing the masterpiece just three years later. Infused with the definitive tenets of Northwest Regionalism—structural honesty, deep overhanging gables, and a flawless integration into the landscape—the single-level floor plan yields three bedrooms and 2.5 baths over 2,736 square feet of highly functional, proportional space. To maximize the expansive territorial views while ensuring absolute privacy, Gatewood incorporated a brilliant passive ventilation system into the architecture. This subtle engineering allowed for vast, uninterrupted panes of fixed glass and frameless clerestory windows, flooding the home with changing Oregon light while maintaining an unobstructed, year-round connection to the surrounding nature. What elevates the Gatewood House to a true collectible is the pristine preservation of its original materials palette; this is not a mid-century home reinvented or hyper-modernized, it is a legacy honored. The interior logic anchors into an expansive, textured wall of locally sourced Mt. Adams stone in the living room, which flows seamlessly past the glass line to blur the boundary between the interior volume and the gardens outside. The home offers an incredibly tactile living experience, grounded by a premium flooring mix of original cork, ceramic, and tile, warmed from below by a vintage slab-on-grade radiant heating system. In the dining nook and culinary suite, this heritage is balanced by original built-ins, pristine original cabinetry, and period fixtures, highlighted by a stunning, vintage wallpaper mural from the celebrated James Seeman Studios of New York. The private program transitions deliberately through the axis. Serving as a quiet intellectual retreat, the den shares the central stone wall, complete with an integrated fireplace, a floating concrete hearth bench, and a built-in executive desk looking out onto private outdoor seating. Positioned as a private sanctuary at the end of the day, the primary suite is designed for absolute tranquility, looking out over a serene water feature and a sculpted, mature Japanese Maple amidst native plantings and pines. An architectural specimen of this caliber demands an equally deliberate lineage of caretakers. After remaining tightly held within the Gatewood family estate for exactly half a century, it passed in October 2006 to its next meticulous stewards. For the past two decades, the home has been fiercely protected by a prominent figure within the upper echelon of the global design community. This elite professional pedigree is visible in every corner of the estate; it takes a highly trained, master-level designer’s eye to inhabit a space for twenty years and maintain its historical integrity so flawlessly. Rather than imposing modern trends onto the structure, the current owner acted as a true archivist—preserving everything from the original, pristine cabinetry to the curated mid-century details. The result is a rare alignment of architectural heritage, flawless custody, and an enduring monument to the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. - Built in 1956 - Detached oversized two-car garage -Separate workshop space - Fully integrated irrigation system - Owned, active security system hardware Listing Courtesy Modern Homes Collective