House of the Rising Sun
Greetings humans, thanks for hanging out me today. This episode is going to be a bit of a first. I’ve dedicated several episodes to discussing the portrayal of architects and designers in film and on television, but today we are taking a look at an actual piece of architecture - a real live building, and the role it plays in one of the most popular movie series of the late aughts. Love or hate it, the Cullen’s mansion in the Twilight Saga plays a major role in the film itself. Now before you decide this is ridiculous, and frankly maybe it is, but I want to preface this by saying, I got obsessed with this house, and I am here to share hours of research with you. We’re going into everything from the history of the house to its affect on the movie in an easy to digest 15 minute podcast episode. Trust me, you’ll walk away understanding the way this house transforms the entire movie and it will even change what you notice about the sets, scenes, and locations of your favorite movie, the next time you watch it.
In 2008 when this movie came out, I was probably a little old to be as obsessed as I was, but there was something about the gentle macabre of this mainstream blockbuster that pulled me in. The love story, plot, and dialogue are really a separate topic in themselves, but one thing I find undeniable about these movies - that’s all five of them - is the epic “B” roll of the Pacific Northwest in all its woodland glory. From the towering Douglas Furs to the babbling brooks that twist through aerial footage in the opening credits and cut scenes, this film sets a MOOD. And nestled in the heart of it all is a little house that has stuck in my mind for well over decade, and today we are going to look at exactly what makes the Cullen Residence so architecturally significant and pivotal to the film’s central storyline.
We have to start at the beginning, so if you didn’t know, before the Twilight Saga was a series of movies, it was a series of Young Adult Fiction books written by author Stephanie Myer. The TLDR synopsis of these films is a teenage vampire and a teenage human fall in love and calamity ensures. The house in question, is that of teenage vampire Edward Cullen’s father Dr. Carlisle Cullen, played by Peter Facinelli. The Cullen family is a group seven vampires who are a collection of different time periods in American history, based on when the were turned into vampires, all living under one roof. It’s basically the Brady Bunch, only with the undead.
Now when Stephanie Myer wrote the description of the house in the first book, she goes into a fair amount of detail. But her words paint a distinctly different picture than what we see in the movies. In the first Twilight book Stephanie describes the house from our protagonist and narrator Bella Swan’s point of view as she arrives for the first time:
“The trees held their protecting shadow right up to the walls of the house that rose among them, making obsolete the deep porch that wrapped around the first story.”
“The house was timeless, graceful, and probably a hundred years old. It was painted a soft, faded white, three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned. The windows and doors where either part of the original structure or a perfect restoration”
I have to tell you, from this description, it sounds like a plantation house. In fact, it sounds almost exactly like the plantation where Louis and Lestat lived in the film adaptation of Ann Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire.” I can’t help but wonder if that influenced Stephanie’s description. But that image seems like such a cliche, almost a default concept of the type of house vampires would live in. And in the story’s context of the Pacific Northwest, a plantation doesn’t fit the vernacular.
Myer goes on to say “It was very bright, very open, and very large. There must have originally been several rooms, but the walls had been removed from most of the first floor to create one wide space. The back, south-facing wall had been entirely replaced with glass, and, beyond the shade of the cedars, the lawn stretched bare to the wide river. A massive curving staircase dominated the west side of the room. The walls, the high-beamed ceilings, the wooden floors, and the thick carpets were all varying shades of white.”
Now this description starts to shape what we see in the movie. So Stephanie Myer’s vision was a renovated, modernized old house, filled with glass and sunlight. So when director Catherine Hardwicke was brought on to create the movie, this passage is likely what she used to shape her vision, not the old plantation idea. Thank goodness.
Catherine Hardwicke, who also directed the movies “Thirteen” and “Lords of Dogtown,” happens to be a very special type of creative. She has a background in design, she holds a degree in architecture from the University of Texas in Austin. I could go on and on about different famous and successful talents who hold architecture degrees or studied architecture for a time. From performers like Samuel L. Jackson to Weird Al Yankovic, to Art Garfunkel and even Thomas Jefferson. It seems like good foundation study for many people, but I digress.
Prior to directing, Catherine worked as a production designer, so her eye for the built environment and what pops on the big screen was well seasoned. Catherine credits location scout Beth Melnick with finding the super modern, cabin-in-the-woods style home in Portland, Oregon. The first Twilight movie began filming in 2007, just months after the construction of this unique gem was completed. It must have been a strange experience to have your completely custom brand new home filled with a cast and crew not too long after you moved in. But there was great care taken during filming to protect the home. Everyone wore cloth booties over their shoes to prevent scuffing of the brand new wood floors, even the actors, useless their feet were actually in the shot.
While the home fits the director’s vision, there were of course modifications that had to be made. In the book, the central staircase serves as a dramatic point of entry for some of the characters, and Hoke House’s staircase is more tucked away, so the team fashioned colossal sized tree branches to one of the balcony decks, and had the characters, known for jumping high into tree branches, make their grand entrance into the home via branch. Hardwicke also noted she made the exterior shots look extra lush by adding digital landscaping in the editing phase.
Although the movies take place in Forks, Washington; a real town close to the Canadian border, in real life, this modern mansion sits on the Southern tip of Portland’s 5,000+ acre Forest Park, just Northwest of the city. The last house on a dead end road in Willamette Heights, the home sits on top a lush hill leading down to nature trails, streams, pine trees, and moss covered boulders. The design of this home manages to look modern while still coexisting with its lush conifer surroundings. The central second floor floats cantilevered above the ground, defined by a unique wrapper of rich warm toned wood - distinctly different from the ground and third floors which recede visually, clad in gray stone.
One of Portland’s premier modern architecture firms, Skylab Architects, is behind the design of this home. I’ve been a fan of Skylab since around the time this house was built - in fact I’m pretty sure I sent them my resume at one point. Skylab’s playful modern forms have been dazzling the Pacific Northwest and beyond since 1999, and by 2007 they were hitting their stride.
This home has several names. It was referred to as the M1 Residence by the architects initially, but the Cullen home later became known as the Hoke House, named after its commissioners and home owners - John and Karen Hoke. John Hoke is kind of a big deal. He serves as Chief Design Officer at Nike, which feels all too Portland. If you know anyone in the design world in Portland, the chances that they’ve worked for Nike at some point are quite high. To this day the Hoke’s still reside here, and seem to not mind the hoards of tourists that walk by to take pictures and get an in-person viewing of where so many classic scenes from movies took place. This commissioning of a classic home by a powerful family with ties to a massive corporation falls in line with a pattern through out the history of modern architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water was a summer home for the Kaufmann family, who owned the chain of Kaufmann’s department stores through out the Midwest. There’s the Chemosphere in Los Angeles which was sponsored by the Southern California Gas Company. My point being, it makes sense that such a prominent home was commissioned by such a prominent figure.
Hoke House is roughly 4,800 square feet, most of which isn’t touching the ground. The first floor footprint of the building was minimized in order to work with the sloped landscape of the site. Two additional stories, making three in total, were cantilevered to create a Jenga tower aesthetic. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a treehouse and mansion had a baby - this is it. Woven seamlessly into the home is a series of balconies, or as Skylab refers to them “outdoor living zones.” Each located intentionally squared from the main living spaces, to make best use of sunlight at different times of the day, and different times of the year. It’s a true expression of blending the indoors with the outdoors.
The home is decisively modern, showcasing three main materials - wood, stone, and glass. Glass being the most noticeable, especially from inside the house. True to the description in the book, Hoke House makes great use of floor to ceiling windows in as many places as possible, creating vistas and views in every room, even the downstairs shower has picture perfect view to the adjacent forest.
A modern, light-filled home is the opposite of what’s expected to house a clan of vampires and that’s so important to impress upon the viewer that these are not the blood-sucking Nosferatu variety, these vampires are different. They have chosen to live a different way. It helps reinforce every other likable quality about Carlisle’s crew. No one is sleeping in a coffin, there are no elaborate and dusty chandeliers. There’s nothing but clean lines, honey colored wood and endless dazzling sunlight. SUNLIGHT! These are creatures that appreciate and admire nature and want to be surrounded by it. If the Cullens lived in a stuffy old mansion with heavy drapes and winding hallways, their claims to be humane and caring vampires that would never hurt humans would be far less believable. But as Dr. Cullen says, “I knew who I wanted to be. I wanted to help people. It brings me happiness.” The Cullens want to make the world a better place and their home is singing that in the background of every scene its in.
The next time you’re watching a movie you love - look at how the sets and scenes help reinforce the story being told. Interior design and architecture have a lasting impact, even if its subconscious. Having an understanding and appreciation for the spaces we see everyday, helps us enjoy our everyday experiences even more. I’ll talk to you in the next episode.
