Getting to the remote islands off Washington State’s northernmost coast is not always smooth sailing. Just ask architect Jason F. McLennan and his wife, artist Tracy McLennan, who in 2019 found themselves stranded on San Juan Island after their century-old wooden cruiser, the Vagabond, started smoking during a family trip. “We got stuck there and were just goofing around one night, looking at property online,” recalls Tracy. “We saw this bizarre, interesting place for sale.”

Having bought and restored several quirky properties in Washington over the years, including a five-story tree house made partly with salvaged ship parts and a 100-year-old barracks with a horse stable that is now his office, Jason was smitten the first time he visited the “pod houses,” as they are affectionately known.

“We fell in love with the potential of the property,” says Jason, who runs McLennan Design on Bainbridge Island and is chief sustainability officer at Perkins & Will. True to form, Jason and Tracy took the leap and bought the camp-like retreat in 2020—even though it had no power or running water at the time and is on a secluded island with no ferry service.

The property, part of a development called Camp Everhappy, is one of the more eccentric projects Jason has tackled. It consists of three prefabricated pods—one each for living, sleeping, and eating—perched among towering Douglas firs, cedars, and madrones overlooking the Salish Sea.

Designed by a Boeing engineer named Hugh Pape in the late 1970s, the pods were prefabricated using aeronautical engineering techniques and airlifted by helicopter onto Pape’s property, where they were finished with modular panels and joined into a single retreat. “He built it like an aircraft,” says Jason. “Nothing can rot. We haven’t repainted the exterior because I don’t know what kind of airplane paint he used—but it’s still going strong.”

The property hadn’t been updated much over the years, save for an A-frame added in the 1990s that contains additional sleeping areas. Jason, Tracy, and their four children set out to bring the camp back to life with the help of local builder Jim Parker and Jason’s “solar guru,” Eric Youngren. The team installed photovoltaics and batteries that power the home and allow it to run off-grid, updated the original rainwater harvesting system, and added new water lines that connect to an underground well. The couple also enlisted a gaggle of high schoolers—friends of their sons, Aidan and Declan—to help haul supplies for a new Space Theory kitchen and a Smeg refrigerator from a barge up to the site.

“The house needed its next steward,” says Jason. “It’s the ultimate recycling project when you can reuse a structure instead of tearing it down.”

In 2006 Jason launched the Living Building Challenge—widely considered the world’s most progressive green building program—and since then he has tirelessly worked to mainstream the concept of “regenerative” buildings that make a net positive impact on the environment. Now, with several family reunions at the camp under their belts, including a few raucous nights by the campfire under the moonlight, the McLennans are learning how a building can be regenerative for a family.

“It forces us close together,” says Jason. “We have to troubleshoot things together,” agrees Tracy. “The camp asks something of us. It’s hard work to get there, get your supplies up, get it functioning. But that makes it a bit sweeter when you can sit and look out at the water and appreciate how you got there.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: McLennan Design / @mclennandesign

Cabinetry: Space Theory

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