Anybody who believes that the words 'stock materials' are the negation of individuality and elegance should study the house on the facing page. Its owner is Mrs. Orson Munn (she's the talented dress designer, Carrie Munn). From floor plan to last details, this four-room house in Southampton, Long Island, is completely personal, completely hers. Yet every part of it is made of standard building materials. Exterior walls are sheathed with asbestos siding and the roof is ordinary asphalt shingle. It is the color which keeps these from looking commonplace. 

Mrs. Munn discovered that siding was made in carnation pink which she pointed up with flame shutters. The roof is pebbly white. The first impression as you enter the house is its feeling of space and sheen. This begins with the rugless floors which are either shiny vinyl plastic or asphalt tile. They are arranged in large checkerboard squares in living and bedrooms and smaller ones in the tiny mirrored en- trance. Living-room walls are of wallboard so smoothly fitted that they look like plaster. Like the tray ceiling which gives extra height to the 25' x 27' living room, they are painted chalk white. 

Because Mrs. Munn disliked the eyebrowless effect of unadorned Venetian blinds, she framed her big living- room windows with a valance made of by-the-yard textured plywood cut into a Greek key design. Though this room has five doors, it gives no sense of being a through-way because two of them are protected by fretted white metal screens. 

When Mrs. Munn wanted a free-form fireplace to carry out the lines of her mainly-French furniture, she cut out a paper pattern just as she would for a dress and had it molded out of concrete and plaster. Living-wise, the house is planned primarily for weekend use. A pretty pink kitchen is an invitation for hostess or guests to cook. With the aid of a part-time maid, Mrs. Munn gives well-organized buffet parties and large cocktail parties which start in the living room and usually spread out onto the paved back terrace.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1954

 

It was perfectly clear to Mr. and Mrs. Harold Loeb that (1) children do more running in and out than adults, (2) the kitchen is the heart of the bustle and activity, and (3) the upstairs offers more peace and quiet than the downstairs. Therefore, they planned their two-story modern house, on a sloping bank of the Saugatuck River near Weston, Connecticut, to fit these facts of family life.

The major results of their very personal planning are two family rooms, one on the first floor, one directly above it. On the first floor it is a kitchen-dining-playroom, open to the terrace. Here Mrs. Loeb can enjoy cooking and companionship at the same time; buffet suppers can be given without effort; and the children are free to come and go, watch television, have parties. Upstairs it is a treetop living room-study with a generally quieter atmosphere; here Mr. and Mrs. Loeb and their friends like to congregate. (Note: when neither generation has guests, the rooms are used turnabout, with parents and children gathering sociably in either room.) The bedrooms are placed for privacy, and the storage space disposed at points of use; for example, on the playroom level are closets for lawn games, card tables, outdoor cooking equipment.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1954

 

It is the variety of texture which gives this house its informal look. Outside, tawny coral rock is used in combination with plain, whitewashed concrete blocks and striated wood. Inside, there is more concrete block, this time combined with the sheerest silks of China, with gold Chinese tea paper, with the glossy sheen of Biedermeier, Chinese teak, and antique furniture of the Hawaiian monarchy which shows English influence. In keeping with the materials used in its construction, the plan of the house is also simple. It was designed with three dominant ideas in mind: easy upkeep, entertaining, and privacy. The upkeep problem has been minimized by the simple materials; entertaining is made easy by the close relationship of the kitchen, circular dining room, living room, and walled patio; privacy is achieved by the patio wall and also by placing the service rooms closest to the driveway. Intelligent use of the sloping site gives all the main rooms a view of the surrounding hills. 

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source: House and Garden Magazine | Special Issue - 40 house plans, 1953

 

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

 

Here is proof that a well-designed house set on a well-chosen site can bring you a new lease on life-in-the-country every season of the year. This site consists of five wooded acres on a hillside at Croton-on-the-Hudson, New York. The owners wanted a house that would give them the feeling of being able to reach out and touch the woods from any of the rooms. They also wanted to make the most of the superb view of the Hudson River down below. To satisfy these requirements the architects gave them wide-angled windows which bring in the outdoors to every room. A butterfly roof, which is an inverted gable roof, permits these windows to be high as well as wide on both long sides of the house. On the side which gets the western sun the interior walls were extended outdoors beyond the rooms to serve as a shield. 

These walls were painted white both inside and outside the house to give the interior a greater sense of un- limited space. The other exterior walls are of natural-finish cypress siding which requires minimum upkeep and blends in well with the surroundings. The plan of the house (see next page) is simple and convenient. A chimney divides the bedroom from the living room, thereby making it possible for each room to have its own fireplace. The kitchen is right next to the dining area, the screened porch, and the terrace. making it easy to serve meals in any one of these three places. In addition to this main house, there are two cottages for guests and a garage. 

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source: House and Garden Magazine | Special Issue - 40 house plans, 1953

 

House No. 30 is an excellent example of what you can do if economy limits the size of your house. It demonstrates how you can gain numerous advantages by making full use of your space rather than dividing it up into small, cramped rooms. You save money by eliminating expensive partitions, and in addition you have a lot more freedom of design. If you have a view worth cultivating, you can turn one long wall into a wide window and have sliding doors that open onto the terrace, as in this house. By using hard-surface floorings and plaster and cork-covered walls throughout, it will be easy to keep your house in good order without outside help. The result will be like this house in Los Angeles, California. It has only 1,000 square feet (exclusive of the carport and paved terrace) yet there is nothing cramped about it. The sliding glass window walls expose the house to the sunny south. They can be left open to catch the prevailing breezes. A trellis will be added later to shade the terrace on hot days. Pins to secure it were set into the concrete when the house was under construction. Beige stucco walls are accented with black window frames.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | Special Issue - 40 house plans, 1953

 

This 1,020-square-foot house juts out over a lake to take full advantage of the view, the breeze, and the water. It is anchored to a rocky hillside, and both the living room and the open deck are cantilevered above the water. The T-shaped plan and the floor-to-ceiling windows give all the main rooms sweeping views of the lake. In fact, the suspended living room overlooks it from three sides. The deck, joined to the indoors by sliding glass doors, doubles the living and din- ing space and includes an outdoor barbecue. Exterior finish is redwood siding with weatherproof stain; trim is white, foundations and chimney are stone.

The living arrangements in this lakeside house are flexible. Both the bedrooms and the bathroom are secluded because they are on a higher level than the other rooms. This sleeping wing can be shut off entirely from the rest of the house by means of a sliding door. The entrance, the living-dining room, the kitchen, and the outdoor deck are planned to function together as one expansive, adaptable living area where you can lounge and lunch, entertain or enjoy complete relaxation. All of these rooms open onto each other and also to the outdoors. The kitchen is partially screened off by a lightweight wall and can be entirely screened off for privacy by simply closing the sliding door. In addition, there is a pass-through for easy serving. The dining area is shielded from the entrance hall by a floor-to-ceiling cup- board storage wall which houses china, glass, silver, and table linen. There are steps which lead down from the living room to a lower level. The slope of the hill provides space under both wings for future dressing rooms for bathers, storage, or bedrooms for a growing family or for guests.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | Special Issue - 40 house plans, 1953

 

Pasadena architect Harold J. Bissner, with Mrs. Bissner, planned this hospitable small house as an expression of their viewpoint and with pertinent family needs in mind. Their site, on which sunlit windows and patio open, is part of an old wooded estate called Chapman Woods. The Bissners decided on a U-shaped plan to preserve large, rare trees on their lot. These include India stone pine, aromatic red cedar, sycamores, ponderosa pine, and the tall, shady oak around which their patio spreads like an extra outdoor room. 

Since the Bissners enjoy both entertaining and privacy for themselves, they decided on an all-purpose room enlarged by a glass wall opening on the green- planted terrace. Separated from the living room, it has a built-in TV set and bar, a card table, books. This family room is a convenient entrance to the secluded, intimate dining room. Off the latter, Mr. Bissner designed a moderate-sized kitchen in a self-contained working wing for service, storage, maid's room, and bath. 

While relatively small, all rooms have a capacious, uncrowded air of extending the house outdoors. This practical arrangement space makes the house seem larger. Mr. Bissner wisely placed the least important areas of his house on the street side so that the wooded outlook, which the living section of the house faces, is not wasted on garage, hall, and baths. The bedrooms each have a convenient access to the terrace.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | Special Issue - 40 house plans, 1953

 

If getting to know yourself is a prerequisite for getting a house that suits you, then it is no wonder that Mr. and Mrs. William Rogers' house is exactly right for them and their five-year-old son, Billy. The Rogers, who live in Greenwich, Connecticut, engaged as their architect Henry Hill, of San Francisco, and therefore had to do much of the planning over a distance of some 3,000 miles. This meant considerable soul-probing and writing down, in copious notes, all that they knew about themselves in particular, and most of what they thought about nature and architecture in general. 

The notebook was a labor of love, with highly practical results. By the time Mr. Hill made his first visit to Greenwich, he had already learned much about his young clients and what kind of house they wanted.

Mrs. Rogers is an amateur artist, with a Pennsylvania Dutch background of efficient house-keeping. To suit her, a house has to have line, color and composition, and a kitchen so well organized that in it she can bake a cake without taking a step. For Mr. Rogers, who is in television and radio, a house has to double as a background for parties and a quiet oasis for thinking. (The study is his office.) Young Billy Rogers had no special theories, but it was assumed that he'd be in favor of any and all practical ideas; for ex- ample, a front hall paved with flagstone, absolutely impervious to wet or muddy rubbers.

There are many reasons why the Rogers' house seems bigger than its actual size. It is an integral part of its heavily wooded site: Great window-walls open to a terrace which runs clear across the rear, and to a view of a creek and a picturesque old stone bridge forty feet below. The same materials, local stone and natural woods, are used both inside and out. It has an open floor plan: The entrance hall, living room, dining room, and study are divided by only partial partitions; you can see above some, around some, between others. And it is literally built around strategic storage space: If order adds to a feeling of spaciousness (and it does), then the Rogers planned wisely; there is a place for everything, so it is easy to keep everything in its place.

The wide front door is painted terra cotta on both sides, and flanked by glass panels. The flagstone-paved entrance hall is a continuation of the walk, another link with the outdoors. There are low, built-in storage cabinets between hall and living room. A great stone fireplace warms both living room and study, to the left. To the right, beyond a wall of bookshelves, is the dining room. In all three rooms the color scheme is the same, and keyed both to the outdoor planting and to the soft wood tones of the walls: brown to beige and gray, and bright terracotta to gold.

Since Mrs. Rogers likes to cook, she wanted an efficient kitchen. To bake a cake or turn out a batch of cookies, she simply stands at a counter, finds everything within reach. Electric mixers are in a cupboard above, and flour and sugar bins are below; the refrigerator is at the right; the eye-level height oven is built into the wall at left. The rest of the kitchen is just as well planned, and has a wide breakfast bar that doubles as pass-through counter and sections off an area that serves as butler's pantry for big parties.

The bedroom end of the house, too, shows careful attention to small details that make for comfortable living. One room is for TV and occasional guests; it has two foam-rubber couches that roll up and down like hospital beds, is a favorite spot for reading and relaxing. Young Billy's room, right next to his mother's and father's, is ruggedly furnished and easy to keep neat. The master bedroom has built-in storage cabinets that form a U: one cabinet doubles as a dressing table; others house many items, including Mrs. Rogers' sewing machine; together, the counter tops form a long table for cutting patterns.

As the Rogers take stock of their house, they remember the notebook where its plan really started. They remember the clippings, the rough sketches, the thousands of words describing themselves and how they wanted to live. And they are sure that it pays to write down all your ideas long before you are ready to start building your house.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | November, 1953

 

Two features make this house by builder Donald Scholz compare favorably with custom-built design. One is the roof-high window- wall at the back of the living-dining area; it seems to double the actual size of the room. The second is the adroit floor plan with one 28-ft.-wide room cleverly separated into living, dining and kitchen areas. In a small house (1,232 sq. ft. plus a 320-sq.-ft. garage) these are excellent assets. Note too how the garage adds a wing to the house, eliminating any cracker-box look. It also adds a window-walled room for storage and other uses. Priced at about $19,500 the house has prefabricated wall and roof panels, ready-made doors, windows, standard equipment and materials.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | June, 1955