The Custom Look

THE HOUSE

A development house was once an architectural epithet synonymous with look-alike monotony and unimaginative design. The housing shortage after the war and the flight to the suburbs did nothing to improve the situation; young families with veterans' loans were glad to take whatever the contractors offered --and that wasn't much.

But the development market has begun to acquire a new and stylish look. One reason for the change is the growth of the high-priced development, planned for older and richer families who welcome and can pay for the landscaping that these developments provide. Another factor is the more competitive market. Builders are stirring themselves to combine economy with imagination and a sense of style usually associated with custom architecture.

Some notable cases in point:

> A forceful, two-story post-and-beam structure, with walls of diagonal redwood siding, brings space and plastic interest to what would otherwise be that modern cliche, the box house. The J. H. Pomeroy Co. is selling the house at its Tahoe Keys development at Lake Tahoe, Calif., for approximately $45,000 with lot.

>In Dallas, where the development formula has long been: "Build a brick box with a hip roof and you can't miss," Designer Parker Folse offers a $16,850 two-bedroom house with a 200-sq.-ft. balcony jutting over the living room, a butterfly roof, a massively handsome fieldstone chimney that anchors one side of the house, which contains 1,275 sq. ft. of living area.

> In Rockland County, N.Y. Architect Murray Blatt is designing and building contemporary treatments, such as a split-level with a difference, featuring especially wide eaves, a wrap-around deck, and a carport tucked under the living space, for $35,000.

> As prototype for a development, Architect Thomas C. Lehrecke designed a house for his own family at Tappan, N.Y., concentrating on combining flexibility with low cost ($28,000). The exterior is of redwood, Douglas fir and concrete block, accented with horizontal white panels.

>Pilot house for one of the twelve villages making up the 10,000-acre El Dorado Hills development near Sacramento, Calif., consists of four interconnected pavilions for 1) living, 2) parents, 3) teen-age children, 4) service (a two-car garage, plus workshop, laundry, and storage space). The pavilions surround and set off terraces and a rock garden that any Japanese temple might be proud to own. Price: $69,000.

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