In January 1979 I acquired the land at 4437 Clifton road and immediately began designing a house for the site. I was attracted to the geodesic dome concept after a chance meeting with Richard Smith, an interesting and likable guy who was a representative for a geodesic dome manufacturing co. in New York State. He helped me work up a professional set of plans using a thirty nine foot thee eighth's sphere geodesic dome as a starting point. The dome excited my imagination which gave birth to two features that were unique in domes at that time: the two third level dormers sitting on second level extensions and the cantilevered circular staircase around the central atrium. In August of that year construction began and in the following April I moved in even though there was much work left to be done. In fact, after many twists and turns in my life, I'm still working on the house as resources and time permit.
The living room is 35' long at the extremity and 16' wide. The semicircular staircase is part of this space as is the domed ceiling which is 19' high at the center of the dome. Ted Frock, a friend who owns a lumber and mill work business, was able to get for me some beautiful cherry wood boards which he milled up for me into floor boards at five different widths in order to use as much of the wood as possible. There wasn't much excess so I had to draw up the whole living room floor on paper and plan where each board would go. It was absolutely stunning then and it's still stunning thirty two years later.
The three level semicircular cantilevered staircase was originally designed to be made from metal, but after the house was under construction, the fabricator backed out of the deal and returned my deposit. What was I to do? I decided to redesign it out of oak and oak faced plywood. The cantilevered oak torsion boxes supporting each tread were glued and bolted to 4x6 columns inside the wall which also supported the joist system for the third level floor. Supported in this way, the treads have no visible support and so appear to float out of the curved wall of the atrium. The pentagonal skylight above the atrium brings in the sky that is on occasion magical. My vision for the handrail was a continuous ribbon of wood from the beginning of the landing at the third level to the first level floor. It was a complex design requiring laminating, steam bending and at the corners cutting shapes out of large blocks of solid wood and it was many years after I moved in before I found the time to dive into this project. But when the staircase was finally completed it seemed to tie the whole atrium and the living room together into an aesthetic unity.
The original kitchen was designed to use the unusual shape provided by the dome perimeter in an attractive, efficient and cost effective way. But twenty five years of kitchen use provide opportunities for learning how things could be made better. When I designed the new kitchen four years ago, I took out all the flaws in the original design that I had discovered over the last twenty five years. so the new kitchen has much more storage space that is more accessible and is a delight to look at. The mahogany shelf along the edge of the island was an inspiration that came toward the end of the project that draws the eye and highlights the boundary between the kitchen and the living room. The full suspension base cabinet drawers and the porcelain sink and floor are an every day joy that I'll miss when I move on.
The original design for the master bath had a tub alcove and a separate area for the WC and a bidet. But even after the plumbing and electrical work was roughed in, I was not happy with it, so I got out the drafting board and started playing around with different configurations. I wondered if it was possible to combine a tub room and a sauna. A little research and I found out that the metal and plastic parts on the tub would be fine because they were low in the room and the top temperatures in a sauna were only for short periods. The result of the new design included not only a delightful spacious sauna with a large window looking out into the wooded hillside but a completely separate tub room as well into which I could withdraw for those long quiet soaks. The secluded balcony, just a few steps from the tub or sauna, is a welcome place to cool off in the altogether.