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What does a $22,950 tract house (p.78) have in common with a $95,000 suburban mansion (p. 79)? Two things: Both were speculatively built, and both were among the award winners in the 1969 Homes for Better Living competition. Some of the nine merchant-built winners are in large-scale production tracts; some, like the one shown on this and the following two pages, are in small planned unit developments; and others are on individual lots in already developed subdivisions.

In each case, the jury (below) put great stress on how the house fitted its site, how well the floor plan worked and how the facade appeared as part of the overall streetscape.

Now in its fourteenth year, the Homes for Better Living program is sponsored by The American Institute of Architects in cooperation with House & Home and American Home magazines.

(Title) AWARD OF MERIT

This 1,220-sq-ft. house was designed to test a zero-lot-line layout with 40'wide lots in a Sunnyvale, Calif., subdivision previously zoned for duplexes (rezoning permitted the same number of units).

Builder Don Bahl sold a trial group of 27 houses so fast, at $22,950, that he has now introduced the model at another subdivision. To avoid monotonous streetscapes at both subdivisions, architects Robert Jones and Ewin Hom staggered the house setbacks, varied the orientation of the peaked roofs and designed seven different walls for the front patios.

Captions to Photos

The Jury: (top photo, l. to r.) Robert B. Price, FAIA, Tacoma, Wash,; John L. Schmidt, AIA, U.S. Savings & Loan League, Chicago, Ill.; and Fielding L. Bowman, AIA, New Canaan, Conn. Also (in lower photo, l. to r.) Charles E. Lamb, AIA, Baltimore; William E. Aubin, builder, Amherst, Mass; Fred R. Smith, editor, American Home; and James P. Gallagher, senior editor, House & Home.

MERCHANT-BUILT HOUSES in Spyglass subdivision, Pebble Beach, Calif. Architects; Burde, Shaw & Associates. Photo: Roger Fremiz See page 74

FLOOR PLAN opens each room to a patio. Section of subdivision plan, left, shows staggered setbacks.

LIVING ROOM looks out into patio formed by garage and front and side-lot walls. Patio paving and floors in living areas and kitchen are oversized Mexican tiles.

OPEN KITCHEN (right) is version of garden kitchen now almost universal in West Coast houses.

STREETSCAPE (below) shows varied orientation of peaked roof and varied design of patio wall.