Meandering woodland terraces bordered by bosky planting and linked by rustic steps encircle H&G's Hallmark house for 1961. Yet this house is just 40 feet above a busy main street that leads to downtown Baltimore, 15 minutes away. Nearness to the city was a major consideration in selecting the site. But, as in so many parts of the country today, the only land left close to town was as unpromising as the steep woodsy slope on which this house was built. Yet the architect and landscape architect, who worked in close collaboration from the start, achieved an integrated design in which house and site merge so closely as to be almost inseparable.
This interplay with nature gives the house a special enchantment, at once tranquil and exhilarating, which is one of the qualities that inspired its citation as a Hallmark house. Another was the discriminating selection of materials with which it is built. Most important of all, however, in H&G's judgment, are the comforts and the pleasure, the spaciousness and the privacy which the house affords to the young and growing family who live in it. The one-story plan is so skillfully zoned for the varying activities of the young parents and their four children—two toddlers, two girls in grade school—that it works like four houses under one roof.
The atrium, the delightful surprise at the heart of the house, brings to completion its merger with nature. Open to the sky, the inner court offers a bonus of daylight as well as an intimate view of growing trees and shrubs to balance the light and views through glass walls and windows on the outside of the house. Privacy is assured by the design of the encircling land which appears to be as natural as an untamed forest but is, in fact, the result of carving the site into a series of terraces. Thus the family has all the conveniences of one-level living enriched by the visual charm of a multi-level setting.
The informal woodsy quality of the setting inspired the choice of redwood board and batten for the exterior. Indoors, the exposed post and beam construction and materials such as the fir of the ceilings, the rugged stone of the fireplace and the black ceramic tile that paves every floor also emphasize the close affiliation with nature. Quiet and unobtrusive, they are a perfect foil for the colorful, changing scene outdoors which is such a delight from spring to fall. And they create a warm background for living which never palls with time.
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source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1961
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