Ypsilanti Studio Home Gets California Touch
Ypsilanti Studio Home Gets California Touch
Modern House On Hillside Provides Expansive View
A bit of California was brought to Ypsilanti by Fredrika Mallette when she built her new home on the steep slope at 154 S. Prospect.
After four years on the West Coast and another similar period in Florida, she decided that the architectural "trick"—so prevalent in those areas—of bringing the outdoors "in" by means of window area would be an integral part of her new residence in Michigan.
The studio house she is now living in is the result of that thinking. The designer is Robert Gaudy, a Californian.
The steep slope on which the house is built lent itself admirably to the plan. There is at least 40 feet of drop between street level and the bottom of the hillside.
The two-story residence has two "ground floors"—from the street one enters the studio-living room (with its adjoining kitchen, bath and closet). Below it is the bedroom—on the ground level, too, because of the hillside.
Overlooks River
From each of these rooms looking west, there is an unimpaired view of the nearby forested area— 3 1/2 acres of which is Mr. Mallette’s—and the Huron River beyond.
Much of the wall area on the west side of the house is glassed, whereas on the street side, the ground (upper) floor is cut off from the traffic and public by a stretch of unbroken Vertical redwood siding and door area flanked by an opaque window.
The bright yellow and blue Interior color scheme with its modern architectural touches are a fitting setting for the many oil paintings, pieces of sculpture and other art work of the owner.
Sanders Construction Co. built the house.
Fredrika Mallette (above) has an expansive view of several acres of woodland and the Huron River from the living room of her studio home at 154 S. Prospect St., Ypsilanti. Built on a hillside, both the living room and the bedroom room downstairs "bring In" the outdoors by means of generous use of window area. At right is the fireplace with elevated hearth and sitting nook at the far end of the living room. Many of the owner’s art works are part of the decorative scheme.