The house rests on a high narrow shelf of land near Beverly Hills, Calif., looking across plunging, tree-clad hills to a panoramic view of the valley below. In a certain light, the vista of trees layered with mist suggests a Japanese landscape, a marvelously apt setting for the contemporary architecture with its Japanese detail.
The long narrow plan of the house, its shape determined by the shape of the land, gives every room a spectacular view plus a more immediate outlook on the sparkling pool and its terrace. The same shape made it easy to separate the girls' bedrooms from their parents' by the great living-dining-cooking area. Outside this part of the house the pool stretches toward the back of the site like a lawn of glittering sapphire, and the long porch of rosy beige pebbled concrete extends the indoor living areas to meet it. The low platform or hikie at one end is in fact a continuation of the living room's raised hearth.The bedroom wings have their own outdoor extensions: enclosed sun courts with direct access in each case to a bath dressing room. These prophesy the second life of the house. For when the girls are away, their wing is like a guest house within the big house, offering all the amenities of polished hospitality: self containment, lavish dressing space, the luxury of the pool a few steps outside the door. Even when there are no guests the wing is in continual use, for a third room has been turned into a painting and pottery studio, left, where the girls' mother spends a good deal of time when she is alone.
Nothing more truly expresses the real flavor of the house than the great living area, opposite page. Pervaded by the outdoors, this huge room with its terrace is informal enough to suit the girls and their friends, yet it has enough dignity for their parents' large parties. At the fireplace end, only a low book case separates the room from the hall lined with shoji-doored closets. These conspire with the travertine chimney breast and the end wall of vertical red-wood boards to create an atmosphere of unpretentious elegance. At the other end of the room, the dining area is screened from the hall by a ceiling-high storage wall that includes a bar.Buffet parties are the rule in this house, and the 12-foot-long Philippine mahogany cabinet between the dining area and the kitchen makes a wonderful place to set out the food. Above the cabinet are folding doors that close off the kitchen, below left.
But when these are open, cooking becomes a part of the party, and the guests can watch and sniff dinner as it is barbecued at the tile-topped cooking island. At one end of the kitchen is a high counter facing the sliding doors to the terrace so dripping bathers can hop over from the pool to help themselves to sustenance.The Japanese accent of the architecture is echoed by tiny gardens near the front door and outside the master bedroom. These little plots have the added charm of easy maintenance, another point that predicts a happy future for this house in its second life.
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source: House and Garden Magazine | November 1961
Every house reflects the values of the family who live in it—but none more clearly than a house built for a young family on a young, i.e., limited, budget. Since they can't have everything, everything they put their money into is the result of a considered choice, and the sum of these choices both mirrors and molds their style of living. A shining example is the George Davises' house in Tacoma, Washington. In many ways, the Davises are typical of hundreds of today's young families: Mr. Davis commutes to his business downtown; Mrs. Davis works, too, but part-time and at home; they have two little girls—Kit, 4 1/2 and Gail, 2. Untypical, however, is the fact that Mrs. Davis, who is an architect, designed their house and was thereby able to incorporate her requirements as wife and mother directly into the blueprints with no need to confer with anyone but herself.
The Davises' building budget was $25,000 (which did not cover cost of land and landscaping nor, naturally, include an architect's fee). This money they turned into space (3,238 square feet of it) plus privacy (none of the main rooms face the street) and plenty of places to put things (thirteen storage walls) in preference to a showy array of built-in gadgets and fancy finishes. By using simple materials and the simplest type of construction (post and beam) and capitalizing on the economies of a two-story plan, Mrs. Davis produced a four-bedroom house with space bonuses you rarely expect to achieve on a limited budget: a playroom, a home office and two full dressing rooms. The main floor is divided into three zones: the general living area (A on plan) that embraces dining area and kitchen; the office (B) which is near enough to the living area to double as extra party space; and the bedroom zone (C). The lower floor, which includes the playroom, two bedrooms and a bath will become a separate private domain for Kit and Gail when they are older. But the real key to the house is storage, for it is the storage walls that divide the space in what is otherwise a long, open shell. "Storage" says Mrs. Davis, "is the basic element of design. Its relationship to the family pattern of living determines the plan."
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source: House and Garden Magazine | May 1961
Today's down-to-earth young families, when they set out to buy a house, may prefer to shop for one that is already built, and with good reason. They will have the whole real estate market to choose from, and they will be able to see what they're getting without having to try to visualize a finished house from bewildering blueprints. Once they move in, the house will serve as a good proving ground for ideas of their own which they may someday ask an architect to incorporate in a house designed just for them. Many of the new ready-built houses are the joint product of a national house manufacturer and a local builder-dealer-so they offer an added, twofold advantage.
Buyers not only reap the savings brought about by the manufacturer's large-scale buying of materials and equipment, but they can also exercise personal choice in the design and the details, since so much of the finishing is done by the local builder.
An example of this new kind of ready-built is the French Provincial house, by Scholz Homes, Inc. It offers the look of substance and the traditional detailing of a custom-built house while its plan is well worked out for up-to-date living. The house has two full living areas (one, a paneled family room) which share a dramatic fireplace. There are three bedrooms, a full kitchen and two bathrooms. And the master bedroom suite boasts a storage-lined dressing room such as you would expect to find only in a custom-built house. The manufacturer provides the basic structure of the house-all of the framework, the interior walls, the roof shingles, all the doors and windows (including garage door and sliding windows) and the hardware. Important bonuses such as paneling for the family room, six prefabricated storage walls, all the kitchen cabinets, even a handsome new range are included in the manufacturer's package. The local builder supplies the rest: foundation, brickwork for outside walls and chimney, plumbing, heating, wiring and bathroom, kitchen and laundry fixtures.
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.
One of the freedoms that comes with the independent years is the freedom to risk adventure—to live in an entirely new and different way. For the Robert C. Reeds of Lake Forest, Ill., their new house is such an adventure. "Compact but convertible," they call it, and they revel in its varied and flexible living space which opens wide for parties, yet also affords a sense of snug containment when the Reeds are alone. Although 2,640 square feet in area, the house is just half as large as their former home. Yet the plan is compact and makes ample provision for privacy. The master bedroom, furnished like a sitting room, is a pleasant setting for reading or quiet work. Adjoining the bedroom but completely separate, is a storage-lined double dressing room—one of today's luxuries that mean so much in terms of comfort. For the Reeds, the outdoor living area around the pool and outside the lanai is another new delight. Nevertheless the grounds are so planned that there is no maintenance to worry about. Beyond the low fence which surrounds the house are flowering meadows that provide the pleasure of natural gardens.
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source: House and Garden Magazine | March 1963
This house turns its carport and a blank wall to the street, and inside the house you will find a family room, a choice of dining areas, generous built-in kitchen equipment and specialized storage. Improved forms of lighting and recently developed materials such as translucent plastic panels are also demonstrated here. But above all, this builder's house shows what up-to-date planning can do to make a small house seem large, almost double in size, in fact, by the addition of carefully organized outdoor areas that make the most of every inch of a small lot. Despite its location in a crowded suburban area, every major room in the house has a window wall and complete privacy as well. In achieving this feat, canny planning was abetted by a simple device as old as civilization which is being handled today in a new manner-the tall fence.
