The Story of Trailhead at Tetherow
If you are a Bend, Oregon resident you have undoubtedly heard of, and perhaps visited, the incomparable resort and housing community that is Tetherow Resort. If you do not live in Bend, Tetherow is located less than 10 minutes from downtown and The Old Mill District, and about 20 minutes from Mt. Bachelor. It is a stunning property with Cascade mountain views that spans 700 acres and borders the Deschutes National Forest. Search for Tetherow online and their website will tell you that they “boast an award-winning 18-hole golf course, 50-room boutique hotel, pool, three restaurants, fitness facility, vacation rental homes, event pavilion and various residential neighborhoods.” Copperline Homes is proud to have been part of a collaborative effort to bring another housing and rental product to the Tetherow community in the form of the Trailhead Adventure Cabins. We interviewed Jason Eckhoff, development consultant for the St. Louis, MO firm VRE (Virtual Realty Enterprises) which has landholdings within Tetherow. Jason was able to paint a detailed and articulate picture of the conception and execution of the Trailhead Adventure Cabins built by Copperline Homes.
Trailhead is literally located at one of the few access points (trailheads) to the Phil’s Trail mountain biking system, Bend’s best-known and most beloved mountain biking destination. The site is comprised of a 12 acre tract of land, a small portion of which was to become the 11 adventure cabins, and the rest reserved for 31 residential home sites. In addition to fulfilling an overnight lodging requirement for Tetherow, Trailhead is a unique, lodging residential product that is both available for rent but individually owned.
Jason describes the Adventure Cabins as “deed restricted vacation homes.” By this he is referring to the requirement for the owners to rent out the cabins for at least 38 weeks out of the year. The units can be either rented separately or together, opening an attractive option for the owner to potentially be able to utilize the ADU while renting out the house or vice versa. Another attractive selling point is that, as Jason puts it, Trailhead is a resort-backed vacation rental. When purchasing one of the cabins there is the option to utilize Tetherow’s vacation management services which, in turn, allows the owner and renters of that unit to use all of Tetherow’s amenities. In this respect, Trailhead is unique. If the owner chooses to use Tetherow management they also have access to their in-house services: rental management, housekeeping services, pool and gym facilities.
According to Jason, the nature of the property presented several challenges on architectural, land-use and builder levels. To start, it was important to consider the interplay between the adventure cabin renters and the future primary homeowners in the residential sites. In order to make the most out of the tract, it was determined that clustering the rental properties in the interior of Gateway Loop, the road that runs the perimeter of the Trailhead development, would be the best way to mitigate the inherent conflict that could arise between rental properties and primary home sites. The current layout allows for some natural segregation between these two different users.
Another major challenge came in the form of creating efficient and elegant “cabins” in a relatively small space. Architects Mike Gorman and Jim Landin of BLRB Architects were tasked with designing 11, under 2000 square foot units with 5 king bed bedrooms, all with individual lock-off capabilities, and 5 en suite bathrooms. There is an interesting reverse-living design concept, driven largely from Jason’s personal experience traveling with his family and extended family. The sleeping space is downstairs for ease of luggage transport and segregation from the living space, and the living space is upstairs, affording the kitchen, dining and living areas gorgeous mountain views and high, vaulted ceilings. The final product now features two models: The Storm King and South Fork, named after two local mountain bike trails within the Phil’s Trail system. Both models include 4 king suites and a detached accessory dwelling unit (ADU) with a full-sized kitchen and a balcony above a garage.
After the cabins were built and some of the initial landscaping was put in, privacy became another design challenge. A privacy screening fence concept, similar to the ones built to buffer Trailhead from Skyline Ranch Road, was implemented to help create privacy pockets between the cabins. The panel system not only helped mitigate interaction between cabin hot tubs and patios, but added aesthetic value to the overall project.
Finally, Lisa Rhee, of Brass Tacks Designs, was the designer tasked with the job of finding durable, high-quality finishes that could stand the test of mountain bikers on holiday, family ski vacations, or bachelor parties gone wild, but that would also feel homey and elegant to the owners of the cabins. To this end Cleaf laminate cabinets were chosen due to their resistance to chipping. Each unit has two tankless water heaters for on demand hot water that won’t run out if 5 bathrooms are running showers at the same time after a ski day at the mountain. Large slab quartz was chosen in the showers to reduce the need for grout and the inherent cleaning that comes with it. To the esthetic end, artisan touches such as the handmade wood headboards made in Central Oregon in each of the ADUs, handcrafted metalwork on the staircases, and locally made dining room tables make the cabins feel like a home away from home. Lisa additionally did a phenomenal job of putting together furniture packages that reflected the same form and function values.
Jason is kind in his appraisal of Copperline’s role in the project. When deciding to go with a primarily custom homebuilder versus a commercial builder, Jason is unequivocal in his assessment that choosing Copperline, who is primarily a custom homebuilder, was the right way to go. Jason appreciated that while the cabins were ostensibly a commercial scale project, each unit was treated with the care and consideration of a custom home. He points to the fact that from site plan to choices over finishes, Josh (Wilhite) was on location to meet and discuss and lend a very practiced eye to nuances in homebuilding that may not have gotten the same attention with a commercial group.
We might add that working with Jason, VRE, Tetherow, and the rest of the team was equally an honor and a pleasure. The final product speaks for itself. Great collaboration turns out an awesome result. Thanks for the opportunity!
