72 
House & Garden 
Hewitt 
One o) the highest points of 
domesticity in New York City 
is this house and garden on 
top of a twenty story building. 
lf'erc it not for the view beyond 
the balustrade this bungalow, 
designed by Arthur C. Jackson, 
might be on a California terrace 
An almost ideal condition pre¬ 
vails for growing all the plants, 
from the small evergreens to the 
annuals, as the high coping 
around the roof breaks the force of 
the heavy winds and as there is noth¬ 
ing to obstruct the full sunlight. 
Spring flowering bulbs are used plenti¬ 
fully and there is a succession ol 
bloom from late winter, when the crocus 
and snowdrops appear, until the chrysan¬ 
themums fade away in the fall. 
The house is far from being a mere roof- 
garden-house. It is just the sort of one 
storey house that might be found anywhere 
along the southern California coast, and it 
graces this eastern city altitude charmingly. 
Of course the possibilities of such an airy 
establishment as this are many and varied. 
In fact, from this particular roof one may 
see plenty of somewhat similar “sites” that 
might be handled quite as delightfully as 
this one. But the lesson of the house and 
garden on House & Garden's roof is a splen¬ 
did one for all adventuresome architects. 
It is to avoid the sensation of peering over 
into a dizzy abyss by placing the house in 
the center of the roof and banking the 
boundary so completely with plants and 
wall that there will be only the view of a 
distant and pleasantly detached city below. 
T HERE are two ways to fool the 
city: you may run away from it, 
or you may perch on top of it. 
From either point of vantage: from 
the country or the air, you are 
actor turned spectator, and the city is 
only a symbol. And when you find 
some way to detach yourself the city 
is not a symbol of hectic hurry, crush 
and smother, strangely enough, but only 
one of glamor. From the country this 
glamorous spectacle cannot be seen, but 
from the house and garden shown above, 
which, by the way, sits several stories aoove 
another House &: Garden, on the roof of 
the twenty story building, in which are the 
magazine’s offices, New York lies spread 
out on every side below with the sting re¬ 
moved. To live there is to achieve a sort 
of Olympian existence. 
The idea of this particular house and 
garden is an extremely practical one. There 
has been no attempt to make it sensational. 
From the windows of the attractive stucco 
and tile bungalow there is no suggestion of 
the surrounding city. The breeze that comes 
through is fresh from the sea and the 
country. It is only when one walks about 
the tiled “lawn” and approaches the enclos¬ 
ing balustrade that there is any hint of New 
York. Until then clumps of evergreens, 
A GARDEN 
IN THE AIR 
M1NGA POPE DURYEA 
flower borders, shrubs and vines form the 
greater part of the background of this small 
super-urban place. From the house itself 
the neighboring high buildings are masked 
ingeniously by massed evergreens. 
Plenty of soil has very thoughtfully been 
provided for all the plants. The “beds' , 
which are contained within decorative boxes 
of concrete, are 17" deep. A lesser 
depth would prove discouraging to root 
growth and the soil would soon lose all of 
its nourishment. Even so, it is necessary to 
fertilize well and often when growing so 
many plants in such a compact space. 
