Developer Jack Wagnon gives shape to winning designs for skinny homes

New homes on skinny, urban infill lots aren't always popular with well-established neighbors who sometimes perceive them as tall, thin eyesores.

So developer Jack Wagnon liked an idea from the city of Portland to encourage narrow-lot infill building with a design competition that would attract innovative building plans from all over the world.

Commissioner Randy Leonard worked with the city's Living- Smart Program to create Living Smart: Big Ideas for Small Lots, a contest for designers to showcase their ideas for the most efficient and handsome use of skinny lots.

The 2004 competition attracted more than 400 house plans from 22 countries.

Ultimately, two designs -- by Portland architect Bryan Higgins and Berkeley, Calif., architects Roxana Vargas Greenan and Trent Greenan -- were deemed "permit-ready" or pre-approved for development.

Still, Wagnon saw a problem.

"No one was actually stepping up to build the designs," said Wagnon, owner of Prairie View Homes. "We wanted to prove that our business plan -- higher density, smaller square footage and quality construction -- would work."

Last fall, Wagnon broke ground on four skinny homes. Two in North Portland will use the Higgins plan. The other two feature the Greenans' design. Now under construction in the 4900 block of Southeast Knapp Street, the Greenan homes are expected to be move-in ready by early summer.

The Greenans' two-story plan, less than 15 feet wide at its broadest point, includes three second-floor bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a breakfast nook at the rear of the house. Buyers can choose from a 1,516-square-foot design with a one-car garage, or a 1,700-square-foot design with a 10-by-15-foot office. Both homes likely will be priced at about $300,000, and will be marketed through Builders' Realty Group, Wagnon's real estate company.

Wagnon says building homes on narrow lots doesn't present any special construction challenges. "What's been a challenge is getting the supply chain in place to deliver a higher-end product in a category that has traditionally been thought of as a first-time or rental home," he said. "Delivering affordability and sustainability -- that's been the challenge. All the materials we use -- high-quality insulation, windows, roofing -- have to be above-average quality and energy-efficient.

And how goes the battle so far?

"I'm highly optimistic that we'll meet our targets," Wagnon said. "We've spent three times the normal effort and energy bidding this out because we have to be able to find the right materials at the right price in order to make this work. But I'm confident we'll be able to do that."

Wagnon says all four of Prairie View's skinny-lot homes will feature 40-year roofing, 50-year cement-based siding and, because of the tightly-sealed structural envelope, an HVAC system with air filtration.

The Milgard windows will feature low-emissivity (low-E) glass. Lighting fixtures and appliances will be Energy Star-rated.

"We're complying with all Earth Advantage and Energy Star criteria," Wagnon said.

Wagnon knows that in choosing to build skinny, he faces an uphill marketing battle. After all, for most homeowners, when it comes to lot dimension, fat is where it's at.

"It's a new frontier, changing the skinny home's perception in the marketplace," he said. "But there are also some advantages to our company philosophy. Big-format developers are having more and more trouble finding buildable parcels of land that don't have development challenges like environmentally-sensitive areas -- the easy ones have already been built.

"As a small-format infill developer, we're finding that there's more land available than we have money. We're just trying to push the quality curve when it comes to skinny-lot development, because there are other neat projects out there."

Freelance writer Jeff Kuechle can be reached at jeffkuechle@comcast.net.

RESOURCES:

Prairie View Homes/The Wagnon Co., P.O. Box 699, Lake Oswego, 97034; 503-699-5409; www.wagnoncompany.com

LivingSmart PDX, 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave.; 503-823-4807; www.livingsmartpdx.com

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