In Yreka, California, you naturally turn a house, if possible, to view Mount Shasta to the southeast. You also plan it for a climate of strong prevailing westerly winds, damp winters with perhaps two feet of snow, and 80° to 95° on summer days.
This medium-sized house does all of these things. The owners wanted a free-flowing house where they could entertain comfortably indoors and out. Their site has a view on all sides, which the house design takes full advantage of. With outdoor living and garden areas as varied as you can imagine, the demarcation between indoors and outdoors is often hardly noticeable. These areas, each matched to specific indoor spaces, range in scale from the intimate to the landscape of cosmic proportion. There is a small, sky-lit entry garden with a wall as backdrop; an enclosed garden court (off the guest bedroom); a garden patio off the master bedroom, elements of which the kitchen and study also share; a covered terrace off the dining room, easily accessible from the living room; and a terrace foreground to a wide living room vista of valley and mountains culminating in towering, snow-capped Mount Shasta.
The owners do not have children living at home, but the house provides for guest sleeping. The living and sleeping areas are treated as separate houses. This is clearly expressed in the roof configuration. An entry hallway links the two areas together and also minimizes foot traffic through rooms.
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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967
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