
The Merc • Fort Klamath, Oregon




Owner/Client: Basin Living Arts, LLC
AOR: Place Collaborative
Size: 4,000 SF on 2 acres
Services: Architecture, Planning, Policy
Completion Year: 2023
Certifications: Living Building Challenge Pursuant
Located at the base of Crater Lake National Park, the Wood River Mercantile—known locally as “The Merc”—is a hybrid general store and farm-to-fork café that anchors community life in Fort Klamath, Oregon. This rural hub complements its sister project, Watershed Row in Klamath Falls, which supplies the Merc with both fresh produce and preserved goods.
The café includes indoor dining clustered around a central hearth for winter months, while a shaded outdoor seating area offers summer gathering space near a mature grove of trees. Designed to operate off-grid, the Merc integrates water and food systems with its surrounding landscape.
The commercial kitchen uses well water and irrigates its productive gardens with both rainwater and treated greywater. In the absence of municipal sewer infrastructure, a decentralized system treats blackwater and greywater onsite through a septic pretreatment process and subsurface drainage field. Together, these systems model a regenerative approach to food, water, and community infrastructure in a remote setting.
“For the highest degree of professionalism coupled with heart, art, and vision for a better future, Place Collaborative is your team.”
— Alex & Malu Froom, Watershed Row
