Mint green-painted ironwork and tiles connect the indoors to the outside more fluidly.

The Max-A studio is also built with a pine frame, though it has pine panelling on the ceiling, while the main house ceiling is painted a warm white.

Judith and Maple at work in the living space, which has a deck off the side and a view of the neighbors' house.

Wood decking extends out to the yard.

Amending Meeuwissen’s early request for an open bathroom space, the architects devised a more private chamber with an overhead skylight and walls in stone tile from Intercodam Tegels.

After - living room (Rubio monocoat floors, Chantilly lace walls, used fireplace)

99 by Von Tundra and Lydia Cambron $13,000 Oregon-based Von Tundra’s unit combines three different storage options—a rack, drawers, and boxes—into a multipurpose dresser.

Open and inviting, the addition enables a fluid indoor-outdoor connection that didn’t exist before.

The larger volume of the addition, consisting of kitchen, living, and dining spaces, loops around to the smaller bedroom through a wooden passage. The same ipe, with differing finishes, is used for both the interior and exterior. Expansive sliding glass doors by Fleetwood dramatically open up the living space to the outdoors.

The house that Dake-Wells Architecture designed for Cory and Kerry Watts in the Ozarks in southwestern Missouri is defined by subtle nods to its lakeside setting, such as an elevated wooden plank that carries visitors over a bed of river rock to the north entrance.

The skylight boxes are clad in lap-seam metal panels, which Wheeler describes as an economical material choice.

The knotty-grade tongue-and-groove cedar siding was an aesthetic touch as well as a cost-saving one, architect Mark Wheeler says. "Higher grades wtihout knots doubled the price," he says. In the end he and his team decided that the knots "fit the existing context more accurately."

The living room and a deck offer expansive views of Table Rock Lake.

Accenting the warm wood tones, pops of cobalt blue are found throughout the home, including in the kitchen. The space, which anchors the new living wing, features custom lacquer finish cabinets, Caesarstone counters, a Bertazzoni range, a Miele dishwasher, a Kohler sink, and a custom stainless steel backsplash.

Dake-Wells carfully sited the house to fit on a wedge-shaped lot, preserving privacy by editing views of houses that sit close by on either side.

The Armadillo is parked on a 1,000-square-foot lot that gives the couple ample outdoor space.

An enclosed courtyard, bordred by ipe, is arguably the most distinctive feature of the house that the Phil Kean Design Group created for Adriana De Azevedo, Daniel Coelho, and their two daughters in Winter Park, Florida.

Accordion-style glass doors open the living room up to a lanai, or covered veranda, that in turn opens via a pair of retractable screens onto a pool deck. The effect is to create a single seamless space that merges the living room with the outdoors.

Ipe makes another appearance in the living room, creating a strong indoor-outdoor connection. Kean sited the transom windows to capture views of the moss-covered trees in the backyard.

The floors in the kitchen are polished concrete.

A deep-red door adds a pop of color to the ipe-enclosed front courtyard of this modern home in Winter Park, Florida. Maintaining an indoor/outdoor connection was important to the family, as was a simple and sustainable material palette that includes wood and polished concrete.

"The client served as the structural engineer and the general contractor, so the collaboration with the architect was very intimate on multiple fronts," Shelton says.

The Jorgensen's Menlo Park home is a model of green design with features that are smart for everyone to consider. "Every project is different, but there are some universal things that will apply from project to project," says Feldman about designing a green home. "The first—and most obvious thing—is to always try to build less, to have a smaller house and be smart about how the rooms are designed and oriented so that you can get by with less space. Smart design will lead to a smaller building, but it won't feel smaller."

In a leafy residential area a few miles from downtown Kansas City, Missouri, architect Christian Arnold saw opportunity where others saw trouble. He took a sloping, triangular lot and designed a new home for his growing family—an open tree house–like structure on stilts that hovers at the quirky edge of a conventional neighborhood. Photo by Mike Sinclair.

The kitchen counters and islands reflect a relatively simple material palette.

Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri (1891)Louis Sullivan's Wainwright Building is referred to in the documentary as the "first building that reveled in height." Sullivan claimed to have conceived the design in only three minutes and wrote that a skyscraper "must be every inch a proud and soaring thing." Sullivan's modern, steel-frame building set the tone for the next century of skyscrapers.

Colorful posters from the traveling exhibition "Shrinking Cities" channel possible mantras for a 21st-century Detroit.

This outdoor chair from designer Damian Velasquez is both striking and strikingly comfortable—you might not believe you're sitting on metal. The mesh design is sturdy, but has just enough give to conform to your body. The heat-dispersing, wind-resistant powder-coated stainless steel construction makes it a smart addition to your yard.

O Table by Half 13 $2,800 This curvy powder-coated stainless steel outdoor table, fabricated by Damian Velasquez in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is available in nine vibrant colors.

Wooden decks can be added to heighten the indoor-outdoor living experience.

Fenway Park You haven’t truly experienced the American Pastime until you’ve been to Fenway. There’s nothing like baseball’s grande dame on a warm summer evening: cramped and unforgiving, intimidating and stately, filled to the rafters with raucous New Englanders and transformed into Boston’s touchstone.As Major League Baseball’s oldest ballpark (built in 1912), Fenway’s quirks are a source of pride, from the manual scoreboard and the Green Monster in left field to Pesky’s Pole and the lone red seat in right (section 42, row 37, seat 21) where Ted Williams hit the longest measurable home run ever (502 feet) inside the park. Photo by: Dave

Landscape architect Kevin Campion went to great lengths to protect the poplar trees during construction. Delta Millworks charred the cedar gable fronts following the shou sugi ban technique.

A Rafa Kids swing hangs below the loft bed near the large desk designed for playing with Legos.