Black Butte Ranch Lodge wins Realtors award

Black Butte Ranch’s new Lodge was selected as a “2024 Building a Better Oregon (BBO) Award” winner by the Central Oregon Association of Realtors (COAR).

The award recognizes projects that “have enhanced their community with outstanding new or renovated buildings” and are judged on economic impact, neighborhood improvement, unique design and/or use of materials, and environmental friendliness.

Black Butte Ranch (BBR) unveiled its $20 million dining and meeting facility in 2023. The new 22,100-square-foot lodge includes the Lodge Restaurant, the Aspen Lounge, expansive decks, a private dining room, an indoor/outdoor event space, a meeting room, outdoor dining, and a state-of-the-art kitchen that includes a catering facility.

The Lodge has received significant recognition since opening, including the Lodge Restaurant being named one of the 50 Most Beautiful Restaurants in America by People Magazine and Open Table earlier this year, and earned an Open Table 2024 Diners’ Choice Award.

“For COAR to recognize the new Lodge with this award is a true honor, and a sign that we hit the mark when we built it,” said Kyle Cummings, CEO of BBR. “We built the Lodge to be an amenity not only for Black Butte Ranch’s homeowners and our resort guests but for our entire community. For generations, Black Butte Ranch has been a place that has brought people together, and the new Lodge does that very thing. We believe the Lodge will stand the test of time as one of Central Oregon’s true gathering places.”

Designed to frame the property’s stunning panoramic views of the Cascade Range, BBR’s new Lodge replaced BBR’s 50-year-old original lodge. The new Lodge was designed by Hacker Architects, with the bulk of construction work performed by Kirby Nagelhout Construction of Bend. Walker Macy Landscape Architecture of Portland provided landscape design.

The design takes some cues from the original lodge while creating more direct connections with the surrounding landscape. The exterior is charred cedar siding known as Shou Sugi Ban. The interior spaces are in a palette of contrasting dark and light-finished Douglas fir, slate, and ceramic tiles, with fabrics inspired by woven Pendleton blankets. The open wood structure includes glue laminated beams supported by louvered screening elements, randomly spaced to blend with the nearby trunks of the ponderosa pines and aspen trees surrounding the site. A large central fireplace is constructed from stone, arranged in a pattern inspired by the flow of volcanic rock in Central Oregon.

Most trees on the site were preserved, with one large ponderosa that was removed being harvested to provide the wood for the restaurant and bar tables and benches within the spaces.