A one-of-a-kind home is on the market in north Richland.

The 2,288 square-foot “contemporary architectural gem” was designed by James Dillman, founder of what’s now Archibald & Company Architects in Richland and savior of the iconic fingernail stage in the city’s popular Howard Amon Park.

James Dillman

James and his wife, Cynthia, raised their two daughters in the home, hosted countless family holidays and dinner parties there, cooked with bounty from the garden and enjoyed the many custom features. They moved to the west side earlier this year, and now the family hopes a buyer will come along who’ll appreciate all the home has to offer.

“(We) are really hoping that somebody will move in and love it like we do and tailor it to their own taste and fill it with their own collections and art and objects,” said Brigitte Dillman-Cruce of Seattle, one of the Dillman daughters.

The home at 2523 Granada Court dates to 1974, and the Dillmans have been its only occupants. It’s two stories with a basement, and it has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, including one in a classic ’70s avocado green with flowers on the floor.

Among the home’s unique features are a sunken living room with a fireplace and a master bedroom with its own fireplace and balconies in both the front and back.

The front balcony extends to a studio area where James created art. The home also has built-in shelves in one of the bedrooms, two bonus rooms and flexible space.

Its exterior has a lot to offer, too, said Amy Hubbard of Windermere Group One/Tri-Cities Inc., the listing agent, including front porch and back porch sitting areas, lush greenery and landscaping, a backyard water feature, flourishing grapevines and more.

“It’s not like any other house,” Hubbard told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. “It’s not very often you get to see something as original as this.”

Dillman-Cruce said her dad took inspiration from Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and the adobe and stucco structures he saw on a visit to New Mexico.

“He really is of the school of (thought) that the architecture should reflect the place,” she said, noting that the home does just that – from the way it fits the shape of the lot to the positioning that lets in light but doesn’t overheat the home.

A one-of-a-kind home is on the market in Richland. It was designed by James Dillman, founder of what’s now Archibald & Company Architects in Richland and savior of the iconic fingernail stage in Howard Amon Park. The Dillman family lived in the home for 50 years.

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Kristine Kohl Photography

The outdoor spaces

For Dillman-Cruce, the outdoor spaces are particularly special.

Her dad “lovingly built rock patios with local basalt that he would collect himself...There’s a brick patio with this arched gateway. The gate came from an old bank that he had worked on,” she said.

For him, “it’s always about architecture for the place and the environment,” she said, adding that he also “was kind of an early proponent of sustainable design – reusing materials and using materials that were long-lasting was important to him.”

Laundry chute

Angela Birney of Redmond, the other Dillman daughter, also has many great memories of the home, including of the patios her dad built over time after they moved in.

“When you walk up to the front door, there’s a red brick patio. I remember him putting that in,” she said, adding that the patio off the kitchen with the special gate is her favorite.

Inside the home, “one of my favorite things growing up was that there’s a laundry chute from the upstairs kids’ bathroom to the laundry room, and we would use it when we played hide-and-seek in the house,” she said. “It was a really fun, unique house to grow up in.”

James retired about a decade ago after a long career as an architect.

He studied at the University of Washington and worked at a large firm on the west side until he was swept up in a round of layoffs amid a downturn at Boeing. He then worked for a firm in Kansas before moving to Richland with his young family and opening his own shop.

A one-of-a-kind home designed by a noted Tri-Cities architect is on the market in Richland. The home, designed by James Dillman for his own family, has a sunken living room with a fireplace, among many other unique features.

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Kristine Kohl Photography

Dillman’s Tri-City legacy

He designed many buildings and homes in the region, including helping to design the Allied Arts Association’s Gallery at the Park in Richland and the Tri-Cities Cancer Center in Kennewick.

He’s also credited with leading the effort to rescue the fingernail stage structure from demolition.

The structure originally was built in the 1960s for a concrete company, but it eventually was abandoned, according to a write-up on the Archibald & Company website. However, James saw its potential and fought to save it.

“I don’t know how many thousands of people have enjoyed events in front of the lost-and-found structure, but I do know that people thank me for saving it even today. I, too, am glad that this city, my friends and I did save it,” he said in the Archibald write-up.

He and Cynthia, who worked as a paralegal, both were active in the Tri-Cities community for the 50 years they lived here. They loved the area and the neighborhood, which has a community pool that their daughters and grandchildren enjoyed visiting.

Even after Dillman-Cruce and Birney moved away, the home near Hanford High School still was important for the family – the site of holiday celebrations, of summer fun. 

It’s listed for $555,000. While it will be bittersweet to see it go, the sisters both said it has much to offer a new owner. In their eyes, it’s a treasure ready to be passed along.

“We had a lot of really good family memories there,” Birney said. “I hope someone can appreciate the unusual design, the uniqueness of it. I really hope someone loves it. That's my wish. I want someone to appreciate it and love it, whatever the future holds for it.

“It’s a very special house in the Tri-Cities.”