Legacy for a masterpiece

Frank Motley, now in his 80s, surveys the grounds of his spectacular view property in the Columbia River Gorge and sees pressing unfinished business.

Frank's masterpiece

His magnum opus, his most important life’s work, stands complete. A staggeringly original home built using hundreds of tons of salvaged steel, logs milled on site with his own weathered hands, more than 130 salvaged windows, and designed by him with help from an architect friend, in his own words, for a maximum level of “coolity.” 

The cool factor

On the cool score, Frank’s house more than delivers. Set atop steel columns, it rises like a medieval castle through the trees. It has a tunnel and a drawbridge. People who get past his “No Trespassing” signs to see it for the first time are typically awestruck at the majesty — and the sheer audacity — of the place, which takes in a commanding view of the river, especially from the crow’s nest up top.  

The treasure of time

But the legacy and future of Frank's private masterpiece feels uncertain, and after decades of toil, this thought bothers him.

How can Frank, a retired college reference librarian who grew up poor but absorbed a wealth of hands-on farm knowledge from his dad, share his architectural vision with the world and stay the same fiercely private person he’s always been? 

“What I need,” he muses, “is time.” 

A structurally sound friendship 

The City, which oversees building activity in unincorporated Multnomah County, has played an important role over the years in assessing and assuring the home’s structural integrity. City engineers certified it as both cool and sound. Earlier this year, Frank asked the City’s top development official, Eric Schmidt (now serving as Interim City Manager) to help him document the project and begin telling its remarkable story. 

An endearing legacy

“Frank is one of those people you meet once in a lifetime,” Eric says. “He not only had an incredible vision, but the skill and tenacity to pull it off over decades of hard work. And the engineering and design of his home is a work of pure genius. I’d love to see architectural and engineering students study it and for it to be turned into something that can be appreciated by the wider public someday.” 

Frank's life and vision

• Frank’s career 
• Working on the farm
• The design
• Steel beams
• Windows