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.
Just north of San Francisco is tiny Corinthian Island terraced with houses overlooking a boat-dotted cove, like a vignette of the Italian Riviera on San Francisco Bay. To Mr. and Mrs. Peter Mantegani, who had lived here for years, the views of cove and bay had never ceased to be a delight; but the Manteganis' house—old, complicated, and cluttered with stairs—had become a burden. They wanted a modern house: one that would be small, yet have room enough for the large parties they love to give—and one with a minimum of stairs. A site was at hand—the adjoining property, in fact. But it was a narrow strip of hill that tumbled waterward at a precipitous 60° angle—steep even by Bay Area standards. To many homebuilders, such a lot might have seemed impossibly difficult. The Manteganis' architect, Joseph Esherick, solved the site problems, however, with one bold stroke. He cantilevered the house out from the hill on massive concrete T-beams and the resulting effect, which the double tier of decks so handsomely underscores, is that of the prow of a ship thrusting outward from the land. The glass walls, running the full width of the house on both levels, open it to bay, sky and sun and, together with the broad decks, contribute importantly to the sense of spaciousness indoors. You enter the house on the upper floor, but stairs indoors and out (only one set of each) lead down immediately to the heart of the house. Here the openness of the living room, which occupies fully half of the lower level, makes you forget you are in a really small house.
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source: House and Garden Magazine | September 1960
The spark that gives spirit to a house shines brightly in this one built for interior designer Marco Wolff on a hilltop in Hollywood, California. Though small in size and scope the house displays rare imagination, both indoors and in its outdoor surroundings: The front door is hidden by a high-walled courtyard. The living-dining room is a windowed gallery deftly designed to take in a superb view ranging from the Santa Monica mountains to the Pacific. The garden is a limpid pool, and at its edge is a romantic pavilion for the enjoyment of sun, moon and stars. But the most satisfying element of the whole house is the pervading sense of unity and harmony achieved by the architects who designed both building and grounds. With imagination they molded space, light, site and nature itself into a classically simple design distinguished for its quiet and beauty.
THE WATER GARDEN behind the house affords the delight of a suddenly discovered oasis. Steps and walk of terrazzo lead from living room to pavilion that frames panorama of distant mountains.
