I was contacted sometime in February 2010 regarding the upcoming sale of a Robert Green property. The email was from the listing agent, who provided a couple of images but not much else in detail. Using the images I determined that the home was the Gould House, and from my copy of the RG website (http://www.modusmodern.com/RobertGreen) deduced the location by back-tracking the hint regarding its location on Lake Phoebe (I had to do a bit of sleuthing as the lake is only known as Lake Phoebe by the residents, it's actually now known as Silverlake). Using the floor-plan and images I looked at homes around the lake via aerial photos on Google Maps. A couple of weeks later my guess was confirmed. The home is one of the most well-maintained examples of an RG structure I've seen to date - probably because the family it was built for owned and lived in the residence until recently.
I have some images up from the original RG website here:
Note the intentional resemblance in the floor-plan to the well-documented Hanna House in Palo Alto, done by the master himself. When we first pulled up to the drive I knew we were in for a treat - the roofline from the road, the natural stone, and great fireplace all provided hints of a wonderful structure. I took a few moments looking around the empty house before entering, as evidenced by the photographs in my flickr gallery. The entryway was simply wonderful, with a custom-made door that was heavier than it first appeared. The short foyer opens into a hallway to the right (where the baths and bedrooms are) and a kitchen to the left - ahead lies the large living room. The home is similar to the Arrow Head House in many ways, only with the living room more centralized. The entire back of the house is glass and provides a magnificant view of the lake below. I spent some time taking photos, probably more than many of you will ever want to see, but I wanted to take the opportunity to document the house through photos as I wasn't sure if there would ever be another chance.
The bedrooms and bathrooms, with the exception of the master, are small, featuring built-in dressers (the drawers are often built as parallelograms to match the angles of the walls. The beds and nightstands for the most part are also built-in. The spaces all take as much advantage of the view as possible by providing floor-to-ceiling windows and utilizing the remaining space as efficiently as possible. The master has an additional private room with balcony which is overlooked by the bed, which is surrounded by built-in shelves. There are many areas providing natural light both in the walls and ceiling via skylights.The living area is one of the best I've seen by Green, slightly sunk-in with a two-sided fireplace that comes to an acute point (the other side services an angular seating room). Built-in cabinets cascade down a short flight of stairs to a small end-table. There's provision for television sets, stereo and speakers, all built-in.
The kitchen is expansive, running around the outside of the angular seating room - it features an amazing amount of counter space and what appears to be all original appliances. The floors throughout are the red-stained concrete in triangular motif or carpet. All I can say is, what a fantastic home. Please visit my gallery to look at all the photos - I don't think you'll be disappointed.
For my previous Robert Green posts, follow this link or click Robert Green in my Tag Cloud to the right:
-- John
