Fawcett Homes: The Deer Park | architect Eglis Hermanovski | photos Grayson Tewksburry

"OPEN PLANNING" was a phrase that you heard very seldom in the old days before the war. Since then, the phrase has become familiar to almost everyone. It means that there is a minimum of partitioning between the rooms used for living, dining, and general recreational activities.

If you attended a convention of archi- tects today, you probably could start a good argument by asking what they think of open planning. Some are enthusiastic about it. Others say that there are times when people want to be alone; times when parents don't want to listen to their youngsters' rock-and-roll records or look at juvenile television programs. In fact, some persons who live in open-plan houses say they would like nothing better than a good old-fashioned wall to separate them from their children on occasion. Of course, there are also times when every family wants a wide-open area so they can do a lot of formal entertaining. Nothing hurts the spirit of a party faster than when there is no room large enough into which all your guests can fit comfortably.

You can join the ranks of the open- planners, or you can put yourself in a class with those who like plenty of separate rooms. Or as a second alternative, you can do what Designer Hermanovski suggests for his Deer Park design: You can compromise. For normal, every-day purposes, the living-dining room is separated from the "sunken" den by a low wall, open on top providing spacious quality. Short, heavy draw drapes afford privacy when desired. The den can then be used for record-playing or by television-viewers without disturbing other members of the  household. Leaving the short wall out, folding doors can be used here in conjunc- tion with a neat railing to create a balcony effect. Come party-time, the folding doors can be pushed back to create an open expanse that runs along the entire rear and is more than 38 feet long. As a result of this arrangement, you can have close-plan privacy or open-plan hospitality whenever you want it.

One point of design upon which archi- tects do not disagree is the desirability of separating the sleeping rooms from the noise-making areas. You get that "separate zone" arrangement in the Deer Park. Bedrooms are all located a distance from the den and living room. The bedroom nearest the activities center is separated by a bank of noise-deadening closets. The other two bedrooms have a kitchen and bathroom to serve as insulation. The wall separating these bedrooms also is lined with closets to keep sounds in one from penetrating to the other.

The location of the stairs to the basement is very convenient. You can go downstairs directly from the kitchen, the dining room, or from the outdoors. This arrangement will prove serviceable when you finish off your basement to provide additional areas for recreation. If you follow the prevailing trend and provide plenty of high, long windows to daylight your basement, you will have an area as livable as any of the rooms on the first floor. Thanks to the way that the first floor joists are situated, there are no columns in the basement to obstruct an area 38 feet long and 13 feet wide-a room big enough for a high-school prom.

The Deer Park's kitchen Park's kitchen features "square-look" appliances units made with straight sides and right-angle corners that fit snugly into existing cabinet arrangements and look like "built-ins."