The above ground structure is just like any other– with the only hints being multiple air conditioning units, and emergency exits around the property. The underground interior is one that’s stuck in the hippy chic 1970′s days. Pink draperies, carpet and classic columns outfit the dated interior. Putting greens, a rock facade barbecue and natural style light settings make for an interesting setting that’s completely user controlled. — inthralld.com

The owner of Hill House is Scott Croyle, senior vice president of design at HTC. At two bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a study, the home is just large enough to share with his wife and son. Its modest scale allowed Bernstein to emphasize quality materials over quantity of space.

"It's almost a negative value in that (tech) community," said Bernstein of over-the-top homes. "There's a real emphasis on not seeking a mansion right away." — sfgate.com

Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes hit a significant milestone in June, surging eight points to a reading of 52 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. Any reading over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. — nahb.org

Taut concrete skin, structural glass, an escalator with nothing to hide, everything kinetic, a roof that rocks and rolls. Thom Mayne has given us the most exciting building in Dallas. Plastic cuckoo clocks, his wife Blythe, his dog Isis, his socks, his shoes, his Pritzker prize, the garden, the cereal, the coffee, showers you can see through, columns that could roll. This is where he lives. — fdluxe.dallasnews.com

Mr. Urbach, 49, until recently the curator of architecture and design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and his spouse, Dr. Hartman, 52, a psychoanalyst, have approached the design of their home as if it were a conceptual art exhibit for two.

The apartment’s many mirrors aren’t for checking for stray nose hairs. They “complicate spatial relationships,” Mr. Urbach says. — nytimes.com

Its owners are hoping to sell the house before Nov. 7, when the City Council is scheduled to vote on giving it landmark status, which they oppose. Though they agree that the house ought to be saved — “The property is gorgeous,” Mr. Sells said in its master bedroom one morning — they say they must first safeguard their investment, as well as their livelihood.

“If it becomes a landmark,” Mr. Sells said, “we’re out of business.” — nytimes.com

“Here is the most modern of modern houses I’ve ever seen and loved,” she wrote, describing the turquoise mosaic tile, the compact state-of-the-art kitchen, the distant views of city lights, the proximity to her daughter’s family and the circular stairway that she felt, sadly, too old to sail down.

“I guess you can’t expect to have too many dreams answered,” she concluded. “At least, I’ve had the opportunity to see the Morris House, to know it existed.” — nytimes.com

The house is the world’s first temple to “Acid Modernism,” the aesthetic the California-born Aitken conceived for himself and Gemma Ponsa, his companion of the last six years. “The goal was to create a warm, organic modernism that’s also perceptual and hallucinatory,” he said of the design. “We thought that would be a wonderful environment to live in.” — nytimes.com

The book answers questions like: Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why were kitchens cut off from the rest of a home? And did strangers really share beds as recently as a century ago? (Yes, they did.) — npr.org

JG Ballard's rather drab semi-detached home in Shepperton is inextricably linked with the life of one of post-war fiction's greatest talents. Many of the country's best writers, often Ballard's disciples, visited the author during the 49 years that he lived in this sleepy suburb, where he crafted the dystopian thrillers Crash and Cocaine Nights. — independent.co.uk

The architectural oddity either fell to a recent microburst of high winds in Norman, or at the hand of the owner. — NewsOK.com (Oklahoma)

"There’s not one bit of drywall or plasterboard or anything like that, so everything has a material that is itself." — When A Building Makes You Who You Are: Jen Graves