Gardens

Work It “We wanted to open up the back of the house, but there’s nothing to look at,” says Dana. “So we decided to put something in our yard as a focal point, to create our own view.” The architects came up with a glass-walled studio, which Dana uses as her home office. The architects mounted a steel I-beam that spans the yard, with holes drilled at eight-inch intervals for maximum flexibility of use. Right now it’s used for Ikea play equipment, but later they plan to hang a hammock and a movie screen. ikea.com

The site includes a boat shed and a tractor the family uses to pull their boat to and from the ramp.

BLAIR NICHE PROJECT At just $167 per square foot, this high-design, low-cost barn in rural Wisconsin is an American idyll.

Flush at the corners where the eaves of the roof meet the siding, the kitchen’s streamlined body is partly clad in charred wood.

Isaacson "borrows the view" of a neighbor's magnolia on the adjacent property by propping open the side door. His own espaliered apple tree makes the most of limited space.

An outdoor grilling area on the side porch.

A fire pit set into the the decking.

A second skin of made of pinewood and Structural Insulated Panel Ecowall (SIP) shields the outdoor porches of this coastal home.

At age 34, Phillip M. Isaacson commissioned architect F.Frederick Bruck to design a home for him and his wife. That was 1959. Five decades later, he still lives in his ideal home--and very little has changed.

Patches of sod amid white gravel keep water needs low.