When a property-owner builds on the last vacant lot in a well-established section of a city-as in this case in Tacoma-he has to deal with one and possibly two main problems. One is to make the house fit the neighborhood. The other is to find privacy on a street that is likely to have become a thoroughfare in recent years.
In designing this house, architects Liddle and Jones took note of the main traits shared by the houses in the neighborhood: Height and bulk. They placed the main floor a story above the lower level of the lot, and the bedrooms on a third story. Thus they gained valuable garden space, a partially daylit basement, and a house with individuality yet in harmony with its neighbors, built a generation before.
The task of turning the house away from the street was simplified by the lot's location on the south side. The main living and sleeping rooms face south toward sun and warmth.
Landscape architect Robert Chittock designed a fairly tailored, formal streetside garden to help fit the site into its traditional surroundings. In the rear, a tall wall divides the garden into two very distinct areas. The upper terrace was kept simple and restrained for quiet use by adults. The lower level is organized for children's play and for use by the entire family as an outdoor recreation area.
A swimming pool is to be built later. The sideyard is designed to accommodate the heavy excavating equipment that will come to build the pool.
From the back of the lot you can look down to the play area, or across to a more formal upper terrace.
Family life centers on activities including children, so maximum space went into family room. Beyond fireplace, a formal parlor.
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