Situated on a mountainside overlooking the Rio Grande Valley, the Lown site had been nearly denuded of trees in an attempt to mitigate fire risk.  The family owners, two parents and three children, asked that new landscaping soften the abrupt transition between the house and land and that new living space be developed on the north and south sides.  The design wrapped exterior paths integrated with trellises. It stepped gardens from the driveway around two sides and an end of the the house.  Enclosing two porches provided an entry vestibule below a glassed reading room for the husband.  On the north side a solarium off the second-story kitchen gives onto a deck (storage below) with an outdoor stair connecting to the paths.

Owner’s comment, “ Conrad made it the house it should have been.”