The first time Miriam Rosenthal passed the modern house that eventually would be hers, she wasn’t able to stop to see it. Her real estate agent was racing her to an appointment to tour a Victorian-era home in nearby Portland’s Southwest Hills.

The second time she passed the cedar-sided dwelling "thrusting out from the hillside," she parked in front and the owner, renown architect Robert Oshatz, came outside and asked her to not block his carport.

Days later, she and her husband, Charlie, made an offer to buy the property.

--Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman

Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

They were taken by the series of transparent diamond shapes that draw in light and glass walls that frame Mount Hood like a postcard. Not only would Oshatz sell them the house but he would personally make the changes they desired.

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After almost 35 years of friendship, the longtime owner and the architect were together on Sunday, perhaps for the last time in her famous home. She’s putting the property up for sale in March.

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“It is with regret that I plan to leave this beloved house and neighborhood,” she said. “Charlie died last May and the house is too big for me alone, in spite of warm support from friends and family.”

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Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

WATCH: Architect Robert Oshatz talks about the 1984 Rosenthal Residence.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

She will be moving to a home that might not be the center of architectural tours and fundraising events or be featured on shows like HGTV's "Extreme Homes." But her new place will have something in common with this one:

She insists on a view.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oshatz designs interior spaces first, each shaped by its unique site, to be open to the scenic outdoors while providing a sense of privacy so strong you feel you’re far away from neighbors.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Then, as he did with such celebrated structures as this residence as well as the Fennell floating house on the Willamette River, the Wilkinson treehouse in a forested part of Southwest Portland and his own funnel-shaped home in Lake Oswego, he allows the interior to inspire the exterior's form.

Design elements, such as the triangle, rectangle and diamond shapes here, are repeated in windows, columns, even the front gate to continue the rhythm, he said.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

On this down-sloping, quarter-acre lot, transparent walls and balconies frame Marquam Nature Park.

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Vaulted ceilings are planked in western red cedar and red oak covers the floors. Nothing separates the living and dining rooms, and at the Rosenthals' request decades ago, Oshatz reconfigured the kitchen and removed walls to open it up to the adjacent spaces.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Standing on the main level, looking through panes of glass, some as wide as 12 feet, you feel as if you’re floating among trees.

Bob Oshatz and his family lived in the house in the early 1980s as he completed it. After he sold it to the Rosenthals, he had the finishing trim installed and executed their wish list: A workshop was added and a bedroom was converted into an office.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

When the Rosenthals lamented that the master bathroom had a shower-tub combination while they preferred a separate shower, Oshatz patted one of the walls and explained that there was a hollow space behind it. “That’s an easy fix,” he said. The tub is still there, in a cozy niche with an angled exterior wall holding six windows.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

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A massive diamond-shaped pane of glass spans the upstairs master suite dressing room and the kitchen below. A stained glass overlay upstairs provides privacy but doesn’t block sunlight.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oshatz interviews clients to completely understand the way they want to live and use their house. "They don't adapt to the house, the house adapts" to them, he said. Do they want to wake to sunlight or cocooning darkness?

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A pane of glass 10 feet wide was positioned in the master bedroom so you could lie in bed and see city lights flickering like on a large movie screen. When Oshatz lived here, he’d wonder, What’s playing tonight?

"Your only regret is that you have to shut your eyes to sleep and you miss the show," he said.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

At dawn on clear days, Miriam Rosenthal said Mount Hood is outlined by an orange sky. “I woke Charlie dozens of times to see the sunrise reflected in the sky,” she said. A photo shows the moon as it seems to balance on top of the mountain peak.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oshatz designed the structure on a cross axis with the major axis centering on Mount Hood and the minor axis oriented to bring natural lighting into the interior.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

The living room, dining room and kitchen are on the street level of the hillside house. The level above the ground floor is the master bedroom with a loft. Below the main level are two bedrooms, bathrooms, storage and workout room. Go down one more flight of stairs and there's the family room, guest bedroom, bathroom and one of the decks.

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The decks overlook a colorful garden by respected Portland landscape designer Hoichi Kurisu of Kurisu International. Kurisu has worked all over the world, but he is best known in Oregon for supervising the construction of the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park, based on garden designer Takuma Tono's vision.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

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Among the old Douglas fir trees and carefully selected shrubs and flowers are columns that rise to poke the sky with their moss green triangle tops. As planned, vertical elements visually anchor the house to the steep site that was carefully engineered to be on a conventional foundation.

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The entry to the house is by way of a bridge that serves as a carport. A geometric green gate swings open to an interior courtyard, which is surrounded by high walls but opens to the sky.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Inside, sitting across the dining room table from Oshatz, Miriam looks around and said, “The house is still very much as he designed and built it.”

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oshatz, who has completed projects in five states and Japan since 1971, remembered that in 1984, he instantly had seller’s remorse. “This was my favorite house,” he said.

But he decided if he had to sell his creation, he knew the Rosenthals would care for it.

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“They didn’t want to change the aesthetic,” he said, “but to have the house adapted to meet their needs and to make it theirs. It still functions and works as intended.”

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

The two friends laughed when recalling neighbors long ago referring to the wrought-iron circle in a giant diamond-shaped window as a “peace symbol.”

They talked about the magical way a full moon casts shadows on the oak floor.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Then they took turns telling the story about Miriam asking Oshatz if he had a model of the house she could show her family back East before she moved in.

He recalled the drama of that simple request. He had to pay a $250 ransom to his model maker’s shady landlord to retrieve the miniature version of the house, represented in fragile cardboard, cork and balsa wood.

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

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Miriam has protected the model in an acrylic case all these years. People have seen it at architectural exhibitions and when the Rosenthals hosted fundraisers.

As many as 35 supporters of the Artist Repertory Theater have gathered at this house, built for entertaining, several times to share dinner.

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Randy L. Rasmussen

[Architect Robert Oshatz, photographed in 1983 for The Oregonian looks at the model of the Rosenthal House before the floor below the entry atrium or courtyard were added.]

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She will take the model and the memories of her legendary property to her new home.

What will Miriam miss about her house, the famous Rosenthal Residence? Admiring the details. “You look up and see the angles, repeated motifs and the view. I have never tired of that.”

-- Janet Eastman

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Michael Lloyd | The Oregonian/OregonLive

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