This Pasadena house is paradoxical. It has glass walls all around yet it has privacy. It has an open plan with spacious living and dining areas for entertaining friends but thoughtfully includes a sitting-bedroom wing as the owners' private retreat. It is as modern as its glass walls, steel sash, and unornamented surfaces, but it is an appropriate background for the owners' collection of Oriental antiques. Living in this house is literally like being in a castle in the air. Almost the entire front of the house is a glass wall where you look out through the treetops. The secret of its privacy lies in the fact that its designer set it high on a steep Pasadena hillside site well above ground eye view. He skillfully graded the approach with broad landings and shallow steps so that the house is well tied to its site. Then he devised a very dramatic entrance, a glass-walled bridge hung between two parts of the house. You walk under this, turn, and step up into it. Inside this glass pavilion the dining room, pantry, kitchen, and laundry are on your left. To your right is the broad living room, the two bedrooms, and their terraces. Servants' rooms are at ground level in the kitchen wing. Behind the house there is a secluded garden area and steps leading uphill to a swimming pool.
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source: House and Garden Magazine | Special Issue - 40 house plans, 1953
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