If you like the look of traditional architecture but want the convenience of modern planning, this house will interest you. It combines a classic exterior with a flexible, up-to-date floor plan. Although it has a conventional entrance hall flanked by coat closet and powder room, its main living centers around the rear garden. The living room overlooks it from a traditional version of the modern window wall. An adjoining all-purpose room with windows all around is used for television, movies, cards, games, and lounging. Its walls are paneled in spruce and a table can be set up in front of the fireplace for informal meals. From here you can step out onto a grass terrace sheltered by the back wall of the garage. Throughout the whole house, the ceilings are extra-high. Double, paneled front doors, painted Delft blue, and tall corner lanterns give a warm, welcoming look to its pink brick façade. All of the trim is white.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | August 1952

Here is an ideal house for anyone planning to retire from business and live year-round in a warm climate. This small house provides every imaginable comfort yet frees you from burdensome housework. A long sweeping roof, which rests on cypress columns, shelters the rooms and porches. With this kind of construction, you can place walls to suit your taste. If you want your rooms to be intimate, the walls can be average height. If you like the feeling of light and airiness, you can (1) leave space between interior walls and ceiling, (2) use glass between the top of end walls and the roof. In this house, exterior glass walls insure sunlight reaching all the corners to combat mildew. A partially- enclosed loggia and a screened porch double the living space without adding to cost or upkeep. A shaded spot out-of-doors allows you to sit back in deck chairs and breathe the fresh air. If you like the contrasting tones of wood and brick, use building materials that lead your eye easily from one texture to another. Instead of masking the framework of the house, let it be part of your decoration. In this house, lime-block walls, cypress beams, pine ceilings, and terrazzo floors provide great variety and require little maintenance. The effect of the natural textures is unusually pleasant and comfortable.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | August 1952

A plan that makes an asset of local climate and terrain is a good plan. It will save money on materials, maintenance, and temperature control. If you live in the North, take a tip from this New England house which capitalizes on those two banes of the Pilgrim Fathers: the bitter climate and the rocky land. Its flat roof catches the heavy snows, which build up into an insulating layer in winter, catch cooling rains in summer. Two levels created by the dropped living-dining room and kitchen fit the land snugly, saved the cost of excavation. Used in the living room to form the rugged fireplace wall, local stone also contributes texture and character to the exterior walls. Other practical solutions include indoor plant beds which divide the glass-fronted living-dining room and the entrance; and a combination playroom-laundry which adjoins the kitchen and is in full view of it over a handy counter-snack bar.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | August 1952

If your budget is the stumbling block between the house you dream of and the one you can afford, one of the best things to do is roll up your sleeves literally as well as figuratively-and go to work. There are a great many jobs that a home-owner can do himself if he is industrious, patient, and likes to work with his hands. With a little skill, anybody can paint a house inside and out. Asphalt tile floors are easy to lay; barbecues are fun to build. All these jobs were done by the owners of this house, with substantial savings resulting. Another cost-cutter was to use movable, space-saving storage cabinets instead of partitions. Carrying no ceiling weight, these cabinet walls can be as easily taken out as they were put in, and the bedrooms can be replanned to meet future changing needs. The exterior walls are made of rough-sawn Douglas fir which, once it has been treated to an oil finish, requires no further upkeep.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | August 1952

What your neighbor may build next to you is a common source of worry to most home owners. In the case of the houses shown here, this hazard was turned into an asset. The owners are a brother and sister who live in Washington, D. C. Both are married and have families. Their houses were planned by the Architects Collaborative, Robert McMillan, designer. Like an artist balancing the elements of his painting, he planned a long rectangular house for Mr. and Mrs. John W.  Hechinger, a square upright house for Mr. and Mrs. Richard England. Both families had virtually the same living requirements. Each wanted an individual house compatible with the other, sharing one sloping lot, 140' x 250'. The result: two distinctive houses on three floors, the top one for sleeping, the middle one for living, the lower one for service and recreation. For greater privacy, the main living areas of both these houses turn away from each other.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | July 1952

This is a paradoxical house according to its owners, Mr. and Mrs. W. Parker Lyon. They feel that it successfully solves several contradictory problems. 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 Lyons' own private retreat. It is as modern as its glass walls, steel sash, and unornamented surfaces but it is an appropriate background for the owner's 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 (see drawing on the next page) where you look out through the treetops. The secret of its privacy lies in the fact that Thornton Ladd, 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 be- tween 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 right. To your left is the broad living room, the two bedrooms and their terraces. Servants' rooms are at ground level in the kitchen wing. Behind the house is a secluded garden area and steps leading up to a swimming pool. Downhill, below the house, is a tennis court. The underpass, beneath the bridge, has the additional advantage of letting guests go from the court to the pool without entering the house or walking around it.