Property of Mr. and Mrs. W. Parker Lyon, Pasadena | architectThornton Ladd

This is a paradoxical house according to its owners, Mr. and Mrs. W. Parker Lyon. They feel that it successfully solves several contradictory problems. 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 Lyons' own private retreat. It is as modern as its glass walls, steel sash, and unornamented surfaces but it is an appropriate background for the owner's 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 (see drawing on the next page) where you look out through the treetops. The secret of its privacy lies in the fact that Thornton Ladd, 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 be- tween 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 right. To your left is the broad living room, the two bedrooms and their terraces. Servants' rooms are at ground level in the kitchen wing. Behind the house is a secluded garden area and steps leading up to a swimming pool. Downhill, below the house, is a tennis court. The underpass, beneath the bridge, has the additional advantage of letting guests go from the court to the pool without entering the house or walking around it.