Mr. and Mrs. Andrew A. Bradford property in West Texas | Architect Burton A. Schutt

In West Texas, where dog days can last all summer and dust storms blow up in any season, Texans are creating a new kind of "self-centered" house. The one that Mr. and Mrs. Andrew A. Bradford built in Mid- land swings around a terrace and pool, but the interiors are essentially introverted and completely air- conditioned. "When it's often too hot, too cold or too gritty to go out of doors," the Bradfords explain, "you want a lot of variety, restfulness and space inside of your house." California architect Burton A. Schutt's plan uses the house as a windbreak to dusty "northers." He strings main rooms in a broad curve around the sheltered terrace. Wide windows focus outdoors, but when the curtains are drawn you can wander through the house and discover new delights at every turn. Decorator Margaret Sedwick, of Dallas' Titche-Goettinger Co., plays up sweeping areas with gray and beige backgrounds, gold-flecked tweed foregrounds and accents such as the Coromandel screen. To escape humid, hot climate and live comfortably indoors, you can take ideas from this house.

Outside, the Bradford house cuts a semicircle in back and in front. The free-standing roof of the terrace, shown above, follows the pleasing lines of the pool and provides shade. A concave wall, right, protects the entrance of the house from north winds. Materials used in this house have their roots in the West: the sea-shell-encrusted stone is from Austin, Texas; the crushed rock on the roof, from Arizona. It's hard to imagine, as you look at this comfortable house, that the land upon which it is built was nothing more than a prairie, until a few years ago.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | November 1951