THIS IS A DESIGN as lasting as the stone with which it is built. The wide wall spaces and the window locations all add to the feeling of strength. The arrangement was planned for comfortable living, with screened side porch and open rear terrace. The back stairway from the kitchen to the landing makes for better circulation. The four big bedrooms and two handily located baths upstairs give ample space and convenience for a large family; and the downstairs powder room is particularly well located. The exterior is native stone, laid rough with wide flush mortar joints. This house is owned by Mr. J. E. Franken, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and was built by Bruce and Kenneth McKay, contractors, of Cedar Rapids.

 HERE'S the home for the young man with a growing family-who's no plutocrat. It's small, but designed for big-living capacity.

 

ARCHITECT Richard J. Neutra was asked to design the first Modern house of the Bildcost service because his style isn't "arty," isn't striving for shocking departures, but rather is a result of using the new materials of construction in designing a house in which to live.

All traditional designs have a basis in functionalism. Elizabethan England and Norman France have heavy timbers since they were available for the chopping, and it was easier to use these timbers, filling in the spaces between with stone and plaster, than to saw the oak into boards. Mediterranean homes were of masonry or stucco because wood was entirely too expensive there. The stucco eroded with the rains, so wide eaves prevented this erosion and at the same time protected from the hot sun.

Architect Neutra's design is thoroly functional. Overhanging roof and deck areas protect the interior from sun glare. Room lights are flush with ceilings. Flower boxes, roof decks, ironing board-all are built into the design. Glass walls bring the garden right into the house, and from any room "out-of-doors" is just thru a single door. The downstairs bedroom opens into its own garden, and living quarters open into a lawn patio.

Dining- and living-rooms, tho separated by draperies, can be thrown into one room for expansive entertaining. There is a downstairs lavatory which can be converted to a full-size bathroom.

 

A GLANCE AT the picture of this home, product of the skill of Chicago Architect George Loane Tucker, reveals excellent one-story arrangement of a 5- room home. Altho overall dimensions are within reasonable limits, Architect Tucker has provided rooms of good size and ample closet space for the bedrooms, with a coat closet off the living-room, and a linen closet adjacent to the bedrooms and bath. The modest exterior treatment is beautifully handled and the arches of the small corner porch are of particularly good scale. The garage carries out the decorative details introduced in the house itself. Tho the house is small, its different elements are well segregated, with hall space at an absolute minimum.

 

The relationship of the rooms in this plan provides for entertainment and study so that the regular routine of the family life can be followed at any time. The members' modes of living, the service problem of such a family, and the way they would circulate in the home were thought of in the abstract first, as if the boundaries of each room and its relation to the others were individual. Then the shell of the house inclosing these units of space was designed. Regency was selected as the best design because it has the atmosphere of adequacy without an appearance of waste and undue extravagance.

The exterior is of cement plaster or brick. The windows are out-swinging wood casements. An unusual feature of the plan is the stairway location back of the main hall for privacy and to avoid disturbing those in the living rooms. Complete privacy can be enjoyed in the inclosed porch. A dumb-waiter is located where it can serve the basement, the breakfast nook, the sun porch, or the recreation room. Younger members of the family can entertain on the sun porch, and father can have his friends for cards in the recreation room, while mother enjoys her guests in the living-room. Other guests might be entertained at the same time in the seclusion of the study.

 

TOO RARELY USED, but architecturally distinguished, is the raising of this house above street level on a firm, broad terrace. If your lot is low in relation to the street, it's an attractive solution.

But that's an incidental feature of this rather amazing home. Behind those front walls, which give all the appearance of a cottage, we find seven generous-size rooms. It has a downstairs lavatory and upstairs are two baths, one with a shower stall.

Other fine features of this plan that should be considered are the direct access to any room, downstairs or up, without passing thru another; downstairs lavatory convenient for clean-ups on the way in from yard or garage; sheltered passageway to the garage; dinette in a wing with windows on two sides for light and air; a stair-landing that breaks the climb up and gives privacy to the upstairs hall. Each of the three bed- rooms is provided with two roomy closets.

Already distinguished, the design is further enhanced by the recessed front entrance and the attractive canopy and lattice. Architect Herbert F. Smenner designed it; and H. Kay Nicewanner built it for the Ed Haymonds family, of Muncie, Indiana.

 

BEAUTIFUL PROPORTIONS and architectural details lift this Colonial home above the usual. The entrance is a replica of an old New England doorway. The front of the first story, protected by the overhang, and the gable ends are finished in flush pine sheathing. The balance of the walls are shingled, while the roof is green slate. Walls and black-capped chimneys are painted white, blinds are black-green. The three units of the house include the two-car garage wing at the right, a stone-paved porch at the left, and the house proper between, its balance and solidity maintained by the two heavy chimneys. Examination of the plans discloses room arrange- ment to each side of the central halls, upstairs and down, with ready access to all rooms from the main halls. The dining alcove insulates the dining-room from the kitchen, and here, too, is the entrance to the garage. The home was designed for Mr. H. L. Spaunberg, of West Hartford, Connecticut, by Architect A. Raymond Ellis.

 

THO TAKING FULL advantage of the rolling site, this home of Walter A. Reichart, assistant professor of German, University of Michigan, is a compact and attractive home. Rooms on the first floor are generous in size, with a bedroom and bath included for convenience. The living-room is papered in old Colonial patterns, with wood trim enameled, and with a fine view across the terrace of hills and valleys. The second-floor study is interesting with its fireplace, beamed ceiling, and knotty-pine walls; and it has spacious bookshelves. Entrance vestibule and chimney are of Baltimore stone; paneled shutters are white; and the roof is of gray slate. The home was designed by Architect Harold H. Ehlert, and was built by Mr. Sylvester J. Christie in Ann Arbor, Mich.

WHAT DOES ONE do for privacy on the city lot? What does one do when neighboring houses crowd to the very lot lines? A hopeless proposition? Indeed not. This house is a practical answer! Architect Allen Ruoff solved these problems in designing this home for Mrs. L. R. Holmes, of Westwood, California. Suggestive of Colonial New Orleans, or of the Monterey of early California, is this white stone house. A wrought-iron railed balcony opens from the second-floor bedrooms. Horizontal white boarding contrasts with the stone. And tht two-car garage has louvered doors. In back are a partially inclosed patio-porch with fireplace for outdoor cooking, a formal rose garden, a grassy lawn thru a gate beyond. The garage on the street makes these gardens possible, and living-room, porch, library, and breakfast room all look out into them. No windows of any consequence open at the sides into the next-door houses, so there's a maximum of privacy for Mrs. Holmes and the neighbors.

 

 

THE HOME pictured here was designed by Architects Bruce and Kenneth McKay, and built by the McKay Brothers Construction Company, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mr. Louis E. Jones selected a site on the edge of the city for his home, pictured here, because he was intensely interested in having a garden. Tho there was not a growing thing on the site at the time the home was built, the Joneses planted trees and flowers where fancy and expediency indicated, effectively fitting the home into the scene. Altho built for a small family, and quite compact, the plan of this home allows for rooms of unusually large proportions for a home so small. The hip-roofed dormers and simple entrance give to the exterior a very restful and homelike appearance, enhanced by the decorative detail under the eaves and the shutters at windows and doors. The breakfast space in the kitchen is well placed and, pleasing to the owners, gives a delightful view of the garden.

 

THIS OLD ENGLISH type home, designed for the R. W. Schumackers, of Oakland, California, is oriented to obtain morning sun for the breakfast room and kitchen, and afternoon sun for the livin-groom. In the breakfast room and the kitchen there are large corner windows that open these rooms to the outdoor vista. In the living-room is a large view-window and also a recessed bay. From the reception hall there's direct access to the living-room, kitchen, den, and bedroom hall; and direct access, too, to the outdoors from the den. There's a built-in bookcase in the fireplace wall of the living-room. Opposite, shuttered doors open to the dining-room. Outside, the roof is of inch-thick cedar shakes, and the walls a combination of stucco, clinker brick, and timberwork. The home was designed by Architect Chester H. Treichel; built by Clarence H. Thrams.

 

HERE'S A NET solution to the problem of a compact design with a convenient room arrangement which has reduced costs to the minimum and which has placed the bedrooms where they take full advantage of the prevailing southeasterly breeze. The exterior walls are of common brick painted white, the shutters and sash are a very deep blue-green, while the roof is of wood shingles painted brown-black. Interior walls and ceilings have been plastered and tinted an oyster white, while floors of clear oak have been stained walnut. The bathroom floor is tiled. A brief hall effects ready communication between all rooms, providing direct access to the bathroom from both bedrooms and other rooms as well. Just inside the entrance is a coat closet, and in both service and main halls and bathroom are linen closets. The living-room is made cozy by the fireplace at the end, while the dining alcove is open to the out-of-doors with its two outer walls almost entirely of windows. The owner's bedroom has direct access to the porch and the outdoors. Designers: A. B. & R. M. Ayres, Architects, of San Antonio, Texas. Builder: Mr. John Westerhoff.

 

NOTE IN the floor plans for this home how Architect Theodore Whitehead Davis lets the family live at the back of the house to have the joy of the lovely wooded slope there, and how he has segregated the service portion of the home and, to conserve plumbing, put the bathroom in the front. Large mullioned windows on the first floor face the rear view, and the small porch is placed so that it does not interfere with this view. The fireplace wall of the living-room is paneled in honey-color, waxed pine; walls are papered in aqua color. The dining-room is in pale yellow, with paper above a chair rail. Floor beams are supported on steel beams at each side of the stairwell, making for economy and strength. The short driveway serves both the kitchen door and the combination entrance hall and storm-vestibule. And this vestibule, incidentally, boasts a large coat closet.

Upstairs we find large linen closets at the head of the stairs, and in the smaller bedroom, a bunk. Both the other bedrooms are of good size, with fine closets, and all are conveniently adjacent to the bathroom. In the basement, the laundry room and heating room are together underneath the living-room, leaving the big space under the diningroom and kitchen free for a light and dry game room for the lower grade line per- mits large steel sash in the rear.

Upkeep will be simple, for the gambrel roof and the front stonework reduce the area of outside painted walls. The exterior has a color scheme of dark-brown wood shingles, white wood walls, brick chimney, and trim; with dark Indian-red shutters and front door. The home was built by Trowbridge & Davis, of Port Washington, New York, and its plan will merit study.

THIS Bildcost Gardened Home is designed for the people who want to own their homes but haven't much money to spend. It's small, yet will house as many as six without confusion. It may have either two or three bedrooms, and if necessary, will snuggle down on a 40-foot lot. Amazingly compact, it has plenty of closet space, an abundance of air and sunshine in every room, ample wall space for furniture placement, a well-organized kitchen, bay windows to bask in, and generously proportioned rooms.

The plan is carried out so that either the porch or bay-window elevation can face the street. For the former, with a driveway, you'll need a 55-foot lot; for the latter, without a driveway, not more than 40 feet. The house itself is only 33 feet wide the narrow way.

If you need only two bedrooms, the house then boasts a separate dining-room, with direct access from the living-room or kitchen. When overnight guests drop in, two closet doors in the dining-room open to lower twin beds. If three bedrooms are needed, the dining-room is eliminated in favor of the third. Meals are then served in the dining alcove.

THE excavated portion of the basement is divided into two generous rooms, one for heating plant and laundry, the other for storage or a game room.

On the exterior, side-wall shingles, shutters, and trim are white, with a natural weathered-gray shingle roof. The tomatored entrance door adds a striking color note. Window sash are a subtle dark gray.

Inside you will find nicety of scale. Detail of the trim, mantel, stairway, and bay windows is delicate; and because of this "reduction of scale," rooms seem larger.

 

 

WHITEWASHED common brick over cinder blocks and open steel joists as floor beams result in the termite- and shrinkproof construction of this Garden City, New York, home. Dark green shutters and raked joints accent the brick texture. Architect Reinhard M. Bischoff designed this sturdily built dwelling for Mr. and Mrs. Pierce B. Watson.

 

OF LATE COLONIAL architecture, this home has a Dutch-door entrance, and another Dutch door leads from the living-room to the roofed, flagstone terrace shown at the right in the photograph. Floors are of dark-stained oak in random-width style. Basement extends under part of the house only, and is complete with heating equipment, laundry, and tiled-floor lavatory room. Upstairs, the bathroom has a tiled floor, and there are three bedrooms, the one over the garage with built-in. bunk in ship style. This house was designed by: Architect George Wellington Stoddard for Hugh H. Russell's Development of Blue Ridge, near Seattle, Washington. Attractive plantings extend past the corners and along the sides of the house.

 

THE PROBLEM presented to Architect Beresford Beck by Mr. and Mrs. Chester Speakman, Wilmette, Illinois, was to provide a design for a permanent and compact house for a family of four, with guest accommodations. The location of the stair is particularly ingenious, providing access to the second story direct from every downstairs room. The kitchen is likewise easily accessible from the front. The lower story is faced with old brick which lends a pleasant feeling of sturdiness in contrast to the crisp effect of the projecting second story. The overhanging sections of the second story cast interesting shadows, adding to the delightful effect of coziness. The dormers, shutters, fence, and plantings all combine to give a feeling of completeness to this new home.