Architect Spotlight: John Yeon

(1910 - 1994)

John Yeon is nationally regarded as a regional pioneer in the fundamental rethinking of art and architecture for the 20th century. A native Oregonian, largely self-taught and never licensed as an architect, his brilliant designs include residences, interiors, gardens, landscapes, furnishings, commercial buildings, and museum installations.

Yeon completed the design of the Aubrey Watzek House in 1937, a seemingly modest house of tongue-and-groove cedar siding surrounding an austere courtyard. He incorporated unprecedented technical advances such as double-pane windows, a venting system, and hidden gutters and blinds throughout an open-concept floor plan with axial hallways. It is the most internationally famous house in Oregon history and was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 2011. Yeon also designed a dozen other residences, which he described as “barn style” and “palace style” out of the then-new material, exterior plywood.