A small but well proportioned house like the Edgewater should appeal to any young people starting out who realize that space is what you make it. In the $14,000 range, the Edgewater enjoys the same high quality materials and equipment as the higher priced houses in the group. The compact plan wastes no space. More important, a family can make every room seem larger by strategic use of furniture, color and texture. Nesting tables and seating pieces can turn tight quarters into roomy ones, and multi-purpose ideas can give one room the utility of two. A textured wall and a really beautiful area rug assume even more meaning in a small room than in a large one. The kitchen, well equipped with L-shaped work center, is just around the corner from the terrace and garden areas. Nearby but independent from the house is a storage room with enough space for a washer-dryer.
L-SHAPED WORK PLAN is the most logical arrangement of equipment in a kitchen with two entrances—the hub of a youthful household. Two cooking centers, built-in oven and the surface burners are well separated, thus giving more elbow room to the cook. Between are a stainless steel sink and countertop with ample work surface. Cupboards are faced with woodgrain plastic; flooring is vinyl tile.
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source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1960
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.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––source: House and Garden Magazine | January 1960
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
