Working with architect Stan Hanson and designer Terry Hunziker, Schultz Miller crafted a house on the shore of Lake Washington that uses elemental materials—wood, glass, and concrete—to blur the distinction between inside and outside.
The indoor-outdoor theme carries through a number of key elements of the house. The house is anchored to its site by two soaring walls of board-formed concrete that start in the basement and carry through to the roof, tying together interior and exterior spaces.
Water travels a concrete course from the entry court, around one side of the house, and to the swimming pool on the waterfront. The pool stretches from outside to inside, slipping under a glass overhead door. Cedar siding boards that cover exterior walls turn corners, slide past windows, and continue on interior walls.
There is no margin for error where sliding glass doors come together at right angles to form an inside corner and an outside corner of the family room, the doors needing glide smoothly and meet perfectly, with tons of concrete suspended above them. In dramatic fashion, the doors disappear into pockets in the walls and concrete chimney, opening the room to unobstructed views of the lake and Mount Rainier beyond.