Published, Better Homes and Gardens

LOCATION: An urban corner lot, 40'x130', vacant except for two mature pecan trees midway on the plot. The site is located close to a busy avenue and a neighborhood shopping district.

CHALLENGE: To provide a quiet, private refuge for a family of six in a busy neighborhood with a large amount of pedestrian traffic. The owner also needed a studio space with as much isolation as possible. The house needed to be compatible with a neighborhood of old,  wood-framed cottages.

SOLUTION: To provide privacy, a tall iron fence - planted with fragrant, flowering vines - surrounds the lot. Within the green enclosure is a 3-story, 4-bedroom, 1,550 square foot house set well back from the street between the two shade trees, opening front and rear to gardens and breezes

A separate 2-car garage, with a 2-story high studio above, forms a gatehouse at the front of the lot for further privacy and sound buffering from street noise.  From the garage, the house is approached through iron gates, across a bridge over a moat-like goldfish pond that spans the lot

The house and studio are of similar size and shape, turned at right angles to each other, with roofs sloping dramatically upwards for two stories to create large open spaces, making the interiors seem much larger. While the entry faces of both structures are low, the rear, private faces of the buildings are opened with large expanses of glass, adding a pleasant surprise. The raised, wood-framed structures are sheathed in copper roofs which will soon weather to a soft green, and unpainted redwood siding which will become a driftwood silver.