Bev and Peter Lipman were married on top of a mountain in California after graduate school, so when Peter got at job with the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado, they looked for a cabin in the woods.
They found just the thing on the historic Lookout Mountain Farm – a 1920s-era cabin near Mount Vernon Country Club that had served as the farm’s original homestead. After renting for several years, they bought it and the land around it, paying $12,000.
In 1966, they asked architect James Ream to build them a custom home on the site. He delivered a year later with a three-level structure that won national acclaim for its unique simplicity.
It is supported by a series of Y-shaped wooden beams that were constructed on the ground, then lifted into place. They support the home’s roof and frame without requiring load-bearing walls.
The rectangular main floor has dining and library areas on either end and a two-story living area that is sliced by a bridge from the top-floor master suite with study, bathroom and laundry room. A circular-beam staircase connects the top and main floors. The lower level features two bedrooms and a Japanese bath.
A continuous band of glazed windows 3 feet from the ceiling provides light and views of the surrounding woods without compromising privacy from the street level.
Bev Lipman remembers the effect those windows had on life within the house.
“It was like having ponderosa-pine wallpaper,” she said. “One New Year’s Eve, I decided to put lights up inside along the balconies, and we found out the windows became mirrors at night. The lights were reflected all around the house.”
In the spirit of mid-century modern designs from that period, the Lipman home was relatively small but used every inch of its 2,129 square feet. Even its price tag was a moderate $36,000.
The editors of Architectural Record magazine included it in their Record Houses of 1968 edition, and that designation launched it onto the pages of The New York Times.
The Lipmans raised two sons in the house and used it as a vacation home after moving back to California. Now retired, they have finally decided to sell. Realtor Kelly Hildreth has listed the house, its two-car detached garage, a two-room cabin that has been used as a studio, a root cellar that serves as a workshop, a pump house that has doubled as a wine cellar and 5.3 acres of land for $995,000.
Little has changed since the house was designed 40 years ago. Its exterior and interior walls are still rough cedar, the bridge a bold white swath. Painted doors provide the only color – hot pink, orange juice, red orange, green and soft purple.
Ream, who is now based in San Francisco, said he is pleased to have designed the structure and hopes it sells to someone who will love it. “And if they would like to make changes, they should give me a call.”
