Design Confidently, Live Comfortably
  Of all the resources at Winslow's disposal, none was more powerful than the land she had to work with. She took two bold moves. First, she restored the balance between house and street. She allowed the building to rise only one story in the front and laid out the rest of it to cascade down the hill in back. She also moved the house as close to the sidewalk as possible, getting rid of a bland front yard and replacing it with a smaller, intimate courtyard. The change was dramatic. The mass of house facing the street is much less imposing than was the old Tudor, so it seems friendlier and more inviting.  Rooms With a View Just beyond the eight-paned living room door, a deck overlooks the Oakland, Calif., hills. The dining room is one step up and through an arched passageway. PHOTOS BY KAREN TANAKA With a second floor on the street side of the house eliminated, Winslow moved the bedrooms to a lower level, locating them below the living spaces on the main floor (see Floor Plan).  The views are just as good as they were, but the bedrooms are more protected from weather extremes -- they are cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Winslow's approach also solved one of the old Tudor's most nagging problems by making it easy to get to the backyard by a series of steps that wind down the outside of the back façade. NEXT: A Comfortable Mediterranean Style BACK: Starting with a Blank Canvas |
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