About
Bob Rummer spent fifteen years choosing who would build the next Rummer home.
Bob chose her. Gave her his plans. Asked her to carry it forward.
What a Rummer home is
Between 1959 and 1975, Bob Rummer built 300 modern homes across the Pacific Northwest. Post and beam. Glass to the ceiling. An atrium at the center of the plan, open to the sky, with the rest of the house wrapped around it.
He described what he was after in eleven words.
Houses that bring the inside out or the outside in.
Robert Rummer · Oregon Home, 2011
They are still standing in Oak Hills, Bohmann Park, Beaverton, Lake Oswego and Gresham. Owners rarely sell them, and nobody has built a new one since 1975.
He chose no one for fifteen years
After stepping away in 1975, Bob never stopped wanting to build again. Throughout his entire life, he stayed close to the work, meeting with realtors, past and current Rummer owners, city engineers, architects, roofers, insulation contractors, timber companies, and developers. Exploring new design ideas with his wife Phyllis. Looking for the right person to carry it forward.
His good friend Terry Gilson brought Aubrey McCormick to meet him.
The rest is history.
Before she was allowed to meet him
Bob's closest friend interviewed her first, several times over, before a meeting with Bob was arranged at all. When it came, it ran for hours.
Dozens of conversations followed. Bob chose her. Gave her his plans. Asked her to carry it forward.
Rummer Development is the only builder carrying Bob Rummer's original plans forward, at his request.
I'm building on something people have loved for sixty years. Most builders start from scratch, and I get to start from a legacy. I'm grateful every day that Bob trusted me to carry it forward.
Aubrey McCormick · Founder & CEO, Rummer Development
The one he did not get to see
She pushed hard to get the first house built while Bob was alive. In 2024 she gathered over 700 people at the Modern Home Tour to celebrate his 96th birthday with friends, family, and the community he had built over a lifetime. She launched the company and the new floor plans. She was ready.
He passed in January 2025, at 97, before the first one broke ground.
There is one chance to get the first new Rummer right. She intends to.
Aubrey McCormick
Aubrey McCormick is the founder and CEO of Rummer Development. As a professional golfer and NBC Golf Channel personality, she became one of the early voices in the green sports movement. She authored the first Corporate Social Responsibility report in golf history for The Olympic Club, and also the Mauna Kea Sustainability Case Study. She has presented globally as a keynote speaker at venues including the White House, BBC Sports, and the Golf Channel on the intersection of sports and climate change. She went on to lead nature restoration initiatives with numerous global companies, including the Forest Stewardship Council, where she led sustainable timber partnerships across industries, landowners, and Indigenous communities across North America.
She then turned to residential design and construction, completing 30+ renovations featured in Dwell, The Oregonian, and Oregon Home Magazine. Before breaking ground, she spent two years stress testing the market, conducting intake meetings with prospective buyers, and dialing in the longevity science that defines every new Rummer build. She holds a general contractor's license and is building a network of established partners to execute the Rummer builds. She has funded the company to this point without outside capital.
The plan was always doing more than one job
Bob's plan is single-level and it is open, which made it quietly easy to live in long before there was a word for that. He once described meeting a woman with mobility limitations who told him she never felt confined sitting by her windows. The new houses are drawn from the same plan.
The new houses are built to the same principle, and to a published standard that makes it measurable.
Built to a standard
Every new Rummer is built to a published longevity standard: materials screened against its toxics criteria, air and water filtration verified to it, circadian lighting, acoustic engineering, and smart home systems designed around human health. Bob's plan was already doing this intuitively. Single-level. Open. Glass that keeps you connected to light and season. The new houses formalize what he understood before the research caught up.
The company
Rummer Development is a women-owned company building the first new authenticated Rummer homes since 1975. No. 1 is in development near Portland. The Founders Circle, a limited group of founding buyers securing their place in the first Rummer community, is forming now. Rummer Development is also open to investors who understand the intersection of real estate, design, and legacy brand value.
Press
How this Oregon midcentury home for sale at $1.4M was designed for wellness living
Janet Eastman on Aubrey McCormick's renovation of a 1959 house on SW Laurelwood Avenue.
Fans of midcentury modern architecture react to plans for new Robert Rummer homes
Janet Eastman visits Bob at 97, in the SW Portland house he built in 1966.