The development of the house as a “village street” creates a series of private retreats among generous spaces for family gatherings. From the autocourt, in a grove of maples at the southern end of the house, a covered arcade leads past the bunkhouse stairs and a poolside terrace. As it continues along the closed wall of the guesthouses and their terraces, the arcade opens up to the woods and tennis court to the east, generating a sense of anticipation as the view of the lake is first denied and then revealed again upon entering each of the houses.

A fireplace in a glass wall is the interior focus of the two and a half story vaulted living room in the main house. Sliding glass doors extend the living space onto a large terrace overlooking the lake. The breakfast room flows out from the kitchen, forming the southern “wall” of this outdoor room and providing a private deck for the master bedroom above. From the entrance hall, stairs lead up a half-level to a skylit painter’s studio in the east wing, and then up again to the master bedroom that looks out towards the lake, and in across the living room to a round window on the north wall, high under the curve of the vault.

The two smaller guesthouses are identical and are variations on the formal strategies of the main house. The vaulted, double height living spaces each include a sitting area by the fireplace and a small dining area. Sleeping lofts above the kitchens extend back to create the roof over the arcade. Windows high on the south walls bring light into the living rooms; glazed doors in the north walls lead to recessed terraces, giving each house a private outdoor space with views of the lake.

The highway façade of the entry building is the first layer on the site. It is primarily solid, rendered as a carved, abstract horizontal wall punctured by an entry gate. It is an acoustical barrier separating the rest of the site from the road. As a linear, horizontal figure, the façade of the entry building, with its three-dimensional modulations and articulations, suggests the presence of the different programmatic elements housed within, while simultaneously presenting a large-scale, abstract “road graphic.” It is specific without being revealing; it is designed as a response to both the highway and to itself.

One passes through the entry building to a courtyard conceived as a vestibule to the main house. The courtyard is planted with three rows of five pear trees that flank the path from the gate to the front door of the main house. From the entry courtyard one experiences the entry to the main house, as well as the pool terrace under the bridge, establishing a diagonal sequence of exterior spaces that are separate but interconnected.

The main house contains the living room, dining room, library, and porch on the ground level. On the second level a master bedroom, study, and decks face the ocean and overview the cylindrical double-height living – the primary interior volume and referential space of the composition. It engages all of the outdoor spaces as well as the ocean, establishing the cross-axis of the site, and becomes the mediator between the private domain and the public domains of the site.

A pool terrace extends the open space of the pear tree courtyard under a bridge that connects the main house and the entry building, where an ocean terrace links it to the beach below. Passing through this series of sequential indoor/outdoor spaces, the facades on the ocean side open up to the view and become more transparent, as opposed to solid. There is a transformation of facades – the north/road façade is closed and articulated as solid, the south/ocean façade is open and articulated as void. The idea was to establish separate elements that are programmatically articulate and engage the entire site.

The planning strategy was to integrate building, outdoor spaces and landscape through interlocking volumes resulting in an ordered sequence of layers in both the north-south and east-west axes. The tree-lined entry drive along the western edge of the site screens the guesthouse and tennis court to the east. The drive ends in a landscaped autocourt, which acts as a transition between the guest house/lawn area and the main house and pool area, located at the southern edge of the site parallel to the bluff and ocean. To maximize views and introduce an architectural scale appropriate to the size of the site, the living/dining/kitchen and master bedroom are elevated to the second floor. They are organized under a gull wing roof, forming a continuous inverted vault ceiling over these spaces.

At ground level the entry separates the garage and service areas from the children’s bedrooms, and allows direct access to the pool terrace. A circulation zone runs parallel to the two story exterior glazed wall, connecting both full and half levels of the house physically and visually. A ramp leads from the entry to the first half level where it is terminated by the master bedroom. There a spiral stair leads to a sleeping loft, oriented towards the ocean, and overlooking the sitting room below. The second floor provides a loft-like sequence of living/dining/kitchen spaces open to views of the ocean.

Located below the existing grade at “basement” level are the screening room, exercise room, service and mechanical areas. This below-grade level becomes a plinth for the remainder of the house. The extensive program of this house was resolved into one coherent composition by interlocking building volumes with outdoor spaces within the framework of the site. This resulted in inventive sectional and circulation manipulations.

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The building is organized around a horizontal spine, with the “family house” to the northwest and the “entertainment house” to the southeast treated as complex, figural objects within the landscape. The curved roof of the indoor lap pool creates a cross-axial boundary between the two zones. At the top of the hill, a manmade plateau was created to maximize views from the house while preserving existing vegetation. The change in level mediates between the service areas (including a staff apartment, mechanical rooms, and a six car garage) embedded at grade on the arrival side of the house, and the main floor and a series of outdoor terraces reached by way of the elliptical grand staircase in the skylit entry hall.

The house and topography are integrated to transform the landscape and passage through the “wall” of the house reveals a series of outdoor “rooms” that reiterate interior programmatic events. At the southeastern corner of the house, a sweep of glazed doors opens from the curved two-story entertainment pavilion onto a series of terraced platforms overlooking downtown Austin. The pairing of indoor and outdoor spaces continues around the perimeter of the house in a series of smaller pavilions. A double height glazed breakfast room extends into an outdoor dining terrace. The spa, exercise room, and children’s playroom are pulled away from the frame of the spine, which opens onto another series of terraces leading down to the outdoor swimming pool, changing rooms, and a bicycle path. On the third floor, a guest bedroom and a screening room/conference area in the entertainment zone open to a deck that looks into the double height entertainment room and out over the pool terrace.

Stainless steel wall panels, curved lead-coated cooper roofs, and broad expanses of glass articulate the volumes of the pavilions as a series of objects collaged to the stucco frame of the spine. The full extent of the house is visible only from the air. From the ground, it is read as layers of building fragments that are integrated into layers of landscape fragments and can be comprehended only through memory and speculation as one moves from indoors to outdoors and around the site.

The frame in this house is parallel to the view and is organized in section, at half-level intervals, by a stepped ramp. The first two segments of the ramp, which parallels the entry facade, are articulated on the exterior and read as erosions in the primary frame. Zoning ordinances required that all living levels in a dune area be at least fourteen feet above sea level, thus placing the primary living spaces a half level above grade. The garage and entry are located on the north facade at grade. From the entry, the first leg of the ramp arrives at the living/dining, kitchen, and pool terrace level. Extending from the south facade, the pool terrace is oriented toward the ocean view while functioning as an extension of the main living space.

The master bedroom suite has a private deck with an outdoor stair that connects to the pool terrace. This one-and-a-half-story volume over the garage and pool house is reached from the second ramp landing, one level above grade. The third ramp landing, a level and a half above grade, provides access to the study and the two guest bedrooms with their south-facing balconies above the pool terrace.

From the entry or ground-related side, the building reads as a solid—clearly stabilized and anchored to the entry court. In contrast, the predominately glazed south facade is transparent and opens to the pool terrace and view beyond, and reveals the internal layering and sectional manipulation. The continuous roof overhang completes the primary rectilinear frame and serves as a brise soleil for the recessed glazing. Divorcing itself from its context, the residence is a conscious intervention creating its own sense of plane and “objectness.”

A white stained cedar exterior and painted gypsum board interior formally and visually integrate the residence. Material color therefore serves as a coding element, adding another layer in the articulation of planes and intersections while reinforcing the hierarchical relationships.

Within the limited budget, a design parti and vernacular were developed that set a precedent for later work. By organizing the house vertically, programmatic and site constraints were resolved through sectional as well as plan manipulations. The guest rooms, workroom, and covered terrace occupy the ground floor; the living/dining room and kitchen are on the second floor; the master bedroom/studio on the third floor balcony overlooks the double-height living space. Raising the “public” spaces one level above grade both capitalized on the extensive views, and established a relationship between living areas and the ground plane that is unique to rural house architecture. By placing the continuously occupied portion of the “habital” house on a “base” of intermittent functions, the “parlor floor” was reinterpreted and a sense of privacy was established.

The addition of the studio building extended and enriched the site/object relationship. The studio’s section is derived from the house, but by siting it at a 45° angle to the original structure a perceptual dynamic of corner vs. facade was created. A second dynamic was established by the juxtaposition of structures and ground: whereas the house is clearly anchored, the studio is “precarious” and appears to be almost in motion. The sense of duality, expectation and change adds a further dimension to the overall composition.

Both structures are composed of primary, minimal geometric forms that appear to be carved from a solid volume rather than constructed as an additive, planar assemblage. As they are manipulated in response to site, orientation, program and structure, the intersections of these forms are defined by either erosion or natural light, or both.

The use of cedar siding on both the interior and exterior of the wood frame buildings establishes a primary referential container from which secondary and tertiary elements are developed. Transparency, perceptual and literal extension, and volumetric interpenetration give this small building a unique sense of scale and presence.

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The Gimelstob residence incorporates a series of separate volumes that engage the land and establish a sense of place. The formal investigation focused on how a program can be articulated through a separation and reconsolidation of the parts through an interlocked and composite manipulation of both plan and section. The section, not the plan, is used to create the site integration.

The drive wraps around the house and slopes down a full level to the autocourt and garage. One enters at the lower ground level or ascends a major exterior stair that returns to the meadow level of the main house. The living space is a double-height, encapsulated rotunda, which is the central and centroidal organizing space. It is iconic and skylit, establishing the presence of the building on the site. Additionally, it is an exploration of geometric erosion that results in the figural and articulated solid/void manipulation of the space itself.

On the ground level of the rotunda is the living room, flanked by a sitting area and a dining space, as well as the kitchen/breakfast room, which opens to the pool terrace. On either side of the circulation balcony on the upper level is the library and master bedroom suite, both of which overlook the main living space.

The “children’s house” is articulated as its own wing. It is a four-story building set into the ground, reducing its perceived volume and anchoring the entire composition. It has its own organization as well as its own internal circulation system. There are two levels of children’s bedrooms accessed by circulation galleries: the upper-level gallery opens to a major roof deck, facing south; the lover-level gallery overviews the gymnasium space. Underneath the lower-level gallery and bedrooms is the gameroom. There is a dense vertical stacking and sectional complexity that is not revealed from either side of the site. As one descends, the spaces become larger, wider and unexpected—a reverse sequence to the main house.

The half-level circulation system that integrates the house into the landscape also addresses the owners’ desire for privacy and a clear separation between parents’ and children’s sleeping spaces.

The L-shaped orthogonal frame of the house is divided into four zones: the garage, at ground level; the common living areas, a half-level above; the children’s bedrooms, over the garage; and the master bedroom, another half-level up, overlooking the cut cylinder of the double-height living room. From the entry hall in the circulation tower where the two wings intersect, the stairs proceed by half-flights to each level, knitting the section of the building into the sloped terrain>. The vertical circulation sequence culminates in a rooftop study opening to a deck overlooking the woods and hills to the north. An outdoor stair leads from the second floor landing of the children’s wing down to the pool terrace, engaging the northern side of the house in an informal “courtyard” bordered by the existing stone wall.

The horizontal circulation sequence culminates in the two-and-a-half story glazed, cylindrical living room that looks out over a stream cascading across the northeastern edge of the site. A stucco hearth links it with the more intimate family room behind. Above, the mahogany-framed windows of the master bedroom curve around behind the chimney to create an oculus to the out-of-doors. Over the dining room, the cedar wall of the master bath slices the transparent volume of the cylinder, locking it into the orthogonal, cedar-clad frame of the house. The living room becomes both an object in a frame and an object in the woods, the place where interior and landscape merge.

On axis with the cobbl

The organization is similar to the Gwathmey Residence, in that the public spaces, living room, dining room, and kitchen separate the two private spaces vertically. The entry, instead of being at the bottom, is by a ramp/bridge from the parking area and garage into the living or middle level of the building. The master bedroom is a balcony overviewing the double height living space and terrace, and is extended by a semicircular deck which is over the dining space below. The children’s rooms are “dormitory-like” and adjacent to a major playroom, all opening to grade at the lower level.

The composite plan/section overlay, the materiality, and the formal manipulation of transparency, extension and volumetric inter-relationships are similar to the Gwathmey Residence. The nautical quality is more evident because of the site, the access, and the sense of leaving the land to be surrounded by water.