If you are among the many millions whose wish for a vacation house has passed the talking stage, the Islander may be your perfect answer. You will seldom encounter such an attractive four-bedroom house that sells for about $21,000. You can live in the Islander half the year, close it up or rent it for the other half, and still feel free of upkeep worries. Later on, when the teenagers are grown, it can become a carefree retirement house. A simple rectangle, the house is divided into three sections: the children's bedrooms and bath, the living-dining area, the master bedroom-bath and kitchen. Combined, the living and dining space becomes a 16' x  24' room, flexible enough for almost any scale of entertaining. A rear terrace can be divided so that both living room and master bedroom open to private outdoor sitting areas. The kitchen is a separate room with a convenient entrance to the garden, especially advantageous for the comings and goings of children.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1960

 

The true test of a small house is how well it stretches its limited space to accommodate a young family's interests. The "stretch" in Trade Winds is exceptional, especially for youngsters. Unlike most houses around $23,000, it has genuine multi-purpose space: The dining-family room is an area which can be used for TV and music, for doing homework, for games or, in a pinch, even for an overnight guest. The plan, basically L-shaped, consists of a master bedroom-living room wing and a children's wing, with a kitchen at the bend of the L. The kitchen is U-shaped and has a doorway directly to the carport. A breakfast and snack bar is built in a semi-circle at one end of the kitchen. Especially attractive for a growing family is the fact that all rooms except one bedroom are linked directly to the terrace and pool.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1960

 

The four attractive houses here symbolize a venture in living that could have profound implications for your family and the way you live. In an era when more and more families are seeking to be themselves, to resist the creeping conformity that is imposed by look-alike houses in look-alike suburbs everywhere, these houses express the promise of an exciting new scope for individuality in family living. They are part of a beautifully landscaped and integrated minuscule neighborhood of seven houses—literally a model of the kind of private world that can be created for every family within a planned community anywhere. Eventually, 10,000 families will live in such houses as these in the completely new city of Palm Beach Lakes, Florida. A community like this could be planned for your area—and perhaps someday will be.

If you were to examine each of the houses you would find that they have been designed and oriented on their sites to incorporate two qualities especially prized by most families: privacy and spaciousness. Even the most expensive house would seem far from prohibitive in cost (the approximate price range is from $\$14,000$ to $\$25,000$) yet each reflects the smooth teamwork of the architect, the landscape architect and the builder.

Going from house to house, you would find the same custom quality materials and appliances, chosen for their good design and durability. All have exterior walls of white masonry; their roofs are white, handsomely patterned and heat-resisting concrete tile. Many of the floors are hardwearing, rich-looking terrazzo. Although the kitchens vary in size and plan, all are equipped similarly with built-in appliances; all but the smallest include a dishwasher, washer-dryer and motor-powered food preparation center. The bathrooms use space resourcefully, each with built-in lavatory and storage cupboards.

The Palm Beach Lakes houses illustrate how, with ingenuity and imagination, you can transform any well designed house—however modest—into a personal world of beauty and distinction. H&G accepted with pleasure an invitation from the builders to assist in bringing to life the four houses on these pages. The design and size of each house make it ideal for a certain kind of family, and so we have selected color themes and furnishings that gratify the special needs and interests of four distinct families. The Bermuda, by virtue of a plan that creates two bedroom wings widely separated, is a fine two-generation house for a couple and one or two in-laws. The Trade Winds has two entertaining areas and double-duty space, perfect for a family with teen-age children. With plenty of room for guests, the Islander could be a delightful second house—a home away from home to be enjoyed part of the year. And for a young couple on a budget and a schoolage child, the Edgewater offers an opportunity to make a small house attractive.

What makes a house a good bargain? In this case, its ability to provide plenty of space and privacy for two generations to enjoy. Of the Palm Beach Lakes houses, the Bermuda is the most costly (about $\$25,000$) but nevertheless a fine buy. For a couple who would like to share their house with a retired parent or two, the plan works extremely well. The master bedroom-bath, in a wing of its own, is separated from the other two bedrooms and bath by a living-dining area of great spaciousness and flexible proportions. Each generation has an immediate avenue through sliding glass doors to the rear terrace and pool without having to pass through the living areas. The kitchen is a modified U-shape open at one end to the dining room. Color succeeds in creating two contrasting moods for two generations: the master bedroom gleams with bright yellows and oranges, while the other bedrooms are in restful, muted colors. In the in-laws' wing, the two bedrooms share a bath that has a long countertop with twin built-in lavatories. Storage walls provide ample space—not just for clothing but for books and other personal belongings an older person might collect.

 Discovery can happen in the most unlikely places at the most unexpected times. For instance, who would imagine encountering this striking contemporary house, two-family and four-story, of glass and steel and old brick, while walking along a quiet street in Boston's stately Back Bay section? Or who, drawn across the charming courtyard, down the steps and through the doorway, would expect to find an apartment at once young and buoyant in spirit and yet sensitive to its historic surroundings?

Perhaps as much as girders and beams, an exciting sense of discovery forms the framework of this house. Architect William Krokyn discovered the site, saw its possibilities and, for practical, cost-cutting reasons, designed the house to rest on the foundations of the traditional Boston dwelling that once occupied the spot. Interior designer Larry Peabody then entered into the spirit of discovery. To furnish the lower of the duplex apartments for a young couple with a new baby, he canvassed the local scene for objects modest in cost but rich in tradition, color, pattern and even humor. The result is an eloquent testimonial to the wisdom of letting your house reflect your personal taste. Instead of being dominated by an architectural “style,” the interiors of this house were designed to soften and flatter the contemporary shell.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1960

 

THE SPACIOUS QUIET PATIO is the bonus the Lemanns won by building a two-story house on their narrow lot. Visitors receive a delightful surprise when they come from the hot, busy street into this private world of plants, sun and shadow with water bouncing down from sources high on the garden wall into the basin below. Wall is made of old New Orleans bricks some of which project to create a sculptured surface. Brick paving is interrupted with circular concrete inserts, plots of grass and beds of greenery—all easy to maintain. On this side of house, almost entire wall of lower story is glass since the wall of the patio supplies total privacy.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | December 1959

 

Marching off to bed is a skylarking affair for the four children in the Rasbach family. To reach their rooms they have to cross a bridge—a real bridge over real water— that links the living and sleeping halves of their two-part house in San Antonio, Texas. The dual plan, conceived by Roger Rasbach, a residential designer, shows individuality and imagination and offers some uncommon advantages. Under two roofs, separated by a 24-foot garden court, many seemingly conflicting activities take place simultaneously. Children sleep quietly in their rooms while guests dine or dance in the other house. Grown-ups can listen to hi-fi or piano in the living room while TV or electric trains whir in the family room across the court. The whole family enjoys big-house privacy in medium-house space admirably supplemented by well planned areas outdoors. And though the house is fully screened from the street, the glass walls facing the garden court, terraces and pool let Mrs. Rasbach keep her eye on the children wherever they are, indoors or out.

Very much a part of its southwest setting on a one-and-a-half acre lot, the house is closely allied to the outdoors. During nine months of the year the Rasbachs live and entertain on the terraces around the pool almost as much as they do in their air-conditioned house since careful outdoor planning provides shade, channels the breeze, controls the glare and the sun. The wide, heat- reflecting roof, like a ten gallon hat, shields the big windows of the house. Some of the walls are a honey-colored, indigenous stone, some are white stucco (in 4-foot wide panels that won't crack). Redwood with dark stain frames the house; both stone and wood are repeated indoors for unity of texture and design.

Living and dining rooms in the Rasbachs' house are actually one huge room divided by a two-way fireplace with a tall wood-paneled chimney breast that emphasizes the height of the peaked ceiling. Around three sides of the room the ceiling is lowered, giving a more intimate air to areas like the conversation and music corner, opposite page, top. "We have always been amazed," the Rasbachs say, "at how easily our house expands for large parties and how intimate it becomes for small groups." The dining room, opposite page, lower left, is cheerful for family dinner, which is always served there, while the travertine-top table and terrazzo tile floor are eminently practical for a family with four children. At the same time the table is long enough to seat ten or twelve guests. When there are more, small tables for four or six are set up in the living room and adjoining outdoor areas, above, where dinner is eaten by candlelight augmented only by pool and garden lighting. For still larger parties, buffet supper is served from dining room; there is dancing later in living room. White walls make a flattering background for a free-handed mixture of furnishings: furniture of Oriental, French and contemporary American design, a Venetian chandelier, an Indian carpet, Japanese screens.

The Rasbachs love to cook and Mrs. Rasbach always prepares the main dishes for her parties. But they frequently entertain informally too, and on such occasions everybody helps. For both solo and chorus operations the kitchen is equally convenient. The key to its adaptability is the island work center in the middle of the room. The island includes a double, stainless steel sink of sit-down height, an automatic dishwasher with built-in waste disposer, vegetable bins and copious storage for place mats, china, silver, flatware, paper goods and cleaning supplies. Parked beside the island is a mobile cart which carries in one trip what two hands would carry in ten. At an easy distance behind the island is the cooking center which includes a six-burner countertop range, a wall oven and a built-in broiler-barbecue. In the adjoining wall are two built-in refrigerators. There is an auxiliary freezer in a storage room that opens onto the service court.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | November 1959