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Overview

Architect Victor Steinbrueck selected a wooded, sloping lot in a mixed residential-commercial site in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The architect used his house as a laboratory, experimenting with inexpensive, industrial and unconventional materials in a domestic context, and created an unusual series of elevations, closed on three sides and open on the fourth to take in a sheltered garden. The floorplan was designed to save space and money and contained only 670 square feet.

Building History

The residence at 1401 East Spring Street had a startlingly modern residential design for Seattle, WA, in 1949-1950. It feature a closed, plywood clad front facade and a rear wall of glass. The one-bedroom house was designed for Steinbrueck and his wife, and cost approximately $10,000.

The building did not have the typical gabled or hipped roof of the time, but a flat one with clerestory monitor to admit reflected light. Walls were covered with aluminum foil

Building Notes

Architect's own house. The dwelling had a 670-square-foot first floor, with a 460-square-foot basement. A rear deck extended living space by an additional 240 square feet. The Steinbrueck House occupied a 5,100-square-foot (0.12-acre) lot, that sloped from east down to the west and was still wooded in 1950.

The Steinbrueck House was awarded an Honor Award by the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1952.

PCAD id: 5092