Unusual developments: Couple is the first to build a home on a wooded embankment on Riverside

When Lauren and Ryan Hedlund talk about the new home they are building on West Riverside Avenue, there is one thing that is most important to them: community.

The concept threads its way into the very architecture of their three-story “Pacific Northwest modern” home. It’s what brought the two former Fairchild airmen back to Spokane to raise their young children.

That home will surely earn some curiosity when tens of thousands of Bloomsday runners pass by 2435 W. Riverside Ave., nestled into the steep embankment surrounded by trees and overlooking the Spokane River.

It is the only home along this stretch of West Riverside between the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture to People’s Park at the bottom of the hill.

“One of the things we missed dearly when we moved away from Spokane was the sense of community that’s here,” Ryan Hedlund, 38, said. “Spokane is big enough that you can do all of the city things.”

“But it’s small enough that you run into people you know,” his wife Lauren Hedlund, 36, added.

The home is one of four others built on the edge of the historic Browne’s Addition since 2020, all owned by their friends, the Hedlunds said. The other three homes, located up the embankment south of the Hedlunds, are accessible via First Avenue, near the Finch Mansion and Wakefield House.

Each home is occupied by a family. Nine children between the ages of 3 and 12 will live in the small cluster of homes, the Hedlunds said. Although the Hedlunds property is only accessible via Riverside Avenue, a staircase up the embankment will connect all four homes.

The other new homes raised eye brows in 2020 among neighbors at the nearby Ridge Condo Owners Association, who were worried about disturbing the natural state of the area when developer Asher Ernst proposed to build. Ernst said he recognized their concerns.

There also were concerns that the small housing project might unearth remains of Spokane Tribal ancestors.

So Ernst worked with the tribe’s preservation officer and pressed ahead with the development.

The Ridge Condo Owners Association is located just west of the four homes. Like much of Browne’s Addition, the area is zoned for residential high-density use.

There are no additional plans for development along that portion of Riverside Avenue. However, city spokeswoman Kirstin Davis said not to rule out that possibility in the future.

“The condo association could build more apartments on that hillside without additional platting,” Davis said. “The bottom line is that the condo association could also sell their platted lots for single-family homes.”

However, the embankment becomes increasingly steeper the farther one travels west down Riverside Avenue, which requires additional engineering “hoops” for developers to jump through, Davis said.

The Hedlunds said they “over-engineered” their property, adding an additional inch of reinforced concrete to their 8.5-inch thick, 14.5-foot tall retaining wall that butts up against the hillside.

“That adds $150,000 to the house, just doing that part,” Ryan Hedlund said.

“We are not engineers,” Lauren Hedlund said. “We don’t pretend to be experts in the field, but we have every reason to believe that we have done all the due diligence that would be appropriate under the circumstances.”

A homecoming

As an Air Force brat, Ryan Hedlund had lived in Spokane with his family as a child, but it wasn’t until after he and Lauren were both married and in the Air Force themselves (he a pilot and she a nurse) that they started a family in Spokane while stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base.

“It’s where we got to put down roots for the first time,” Lauren said.

The two considered settling in California, where they were last stationed and where they have family.

“It just didn’t feel like home,” said Ryan Hedlund, who now works as a civilian pilot.

The Hedlunds made offers on a few homes in Spokane first. All of them were too expensive.

“One of them we were outbid by like $200,000,” Ryan Hedlund said.

“We love this place and we want to live here, but we’re not investors,” said Lauren Hedlund, who works in human resources.

While still living in California, the Hedlunds’ Spokane friends asked them in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic if they were interested in purchasing property and building a home alongside them in Browne’s Addition. The Hedlunds said yes.

Building the home has not been easy, Lauren Hedlund said.

The two have been renting on the South Hill for a little more than a year. Their Riverside Avenue home was originally slated to be completed in October of last year.

The pandemic didn’t make the process easy. There was a labor shortage. The cost of lumber began to skyrocket. There were delays in permitting at the city.

“Every step of everything” just took longer, Lauren Hedlund said. The Hedlunds said they also made their own mistakes going through the process as first-time home builders.

The 3,100-square-foot home will emphasize natural lighting, outdoor living space and shared communal space at the expense of larger bedrooms, the Hedlunds said. It will also include a large in-law suite.

Framing on the home went up in November. The Hedlunds anticipate the home will be completed in the spring.

“Building the house we’re excited about, but it always comes back to the people and the place,” Lauren Hedlund said. “We love living here. We love our community here.”