The design of the Smith Residence is ambitious in that it tailors a courtyard house to a sloping site.

Three-story portion of the Smith residence. Stone ruin walls.
The main level contains artfully integrated public spaces, namely the kitchen/family room area and the tripart living/dining/music room.

The site is designed off the metaphor of stone wall ruins, terraced to create the courtyard at the approximate mid-slope area.

The majority of the mass sits atop this pad, acropolis-like when viewed from the rear of the site. A three-story portion of the house creates a visual tie from the top of the site to the bottom, and provides a means of internal vertical circulation as well.

At the top of the site, street level, visitors are invited down to the residence by means of a well-spring at the gate and a stone path adjacent to a babbling brook, which emphasizes the existence of the slope.