Oregon Home | 53 AURA WALLACE AND Matthew French were planning their August 2020 wedding when the pandemic shut everything down. So instead of pumping their $30,000 wedding budget into a seated dinner event, they decided to build a backyard pavilion — complete with a pizza oven, an Argentine grill and an outdoor bathroom. More than 30 neighbors and friends helped with the project. “It was way too much project to do on our own,” says Wallace. As physicians’ assistants and first-line responders during the pandemic, they were eating a lot of takeout pizza. The couple began dreaming by laying out their initial ideas with pizza boxes in the backyard, shaping zones for gathering with friends out back. They eventually enlisted New Energy Works and its sister company, Pioneer Millworks, to design a timber-frame structure for their backyard in Northeast Portland. “I love that traditional, timber-frame style,” French says. “It has something really elemental about it.” The couple had a community event, like a barnraising, to install the structure and called on people within their immediate neighborhood for various other parts of the project. One neighbor helped build the grill; another, a painter, helped with the painting; another neighbor was a welder and assisted with those tasks. The project, which the couple credits with helping them develop deep roots within their neighborhood, has since gone on to be a national finalist for the Architizer A+ building awards in the backyard category. French, who has also spent time as a chef and caterer, now serves up regular seasonal pizzas (a classic margherita is a favorite choice) to crowds who stop by all summer long. “Pizza really is his love language,” Wallace says. “It’s a lot better than serving 200 people chicken piccata at a wedding,” French says. Bliss BY EMILY GROSVENOR PHOTO BY CHRIS MURRAY PRODUCTIONS
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