Masonry Magazine August 1972 Page. 8
With its majestic masonry towers accenting white travertine walls, the hilltop structure is described by mason contractor Louis J. Krabacher (MCAA) as "a castle in the sky."
Once-In-A-Lifetime Dream Home
Architect: I. W. Colburn & Associates, Inc.
General Contractor: John Missal & Co., Inc.
Mason Contractor: FBS Builders, Inc. (MCAA)
Photography: Tom Yee
Few mason contractors ever have an opportunity to help create a "castle in the sky," but MCAA member Louis J. Krabacher, president of FBS Builders, Inc., Waynesville, Ohio, did in conjunction with general contractor John Missal & Co., Inc., of Dayton. Krabacher described it to the International Masonry Institute (IMI) as "a beautiful and awe-inspiring home."
The 11,721 sq. ft. structure was ingeniously designed by architect I. W. Colburn & Associates, Inc. of Chicago. House & Garden magazine was so impressed with this masonry showcase that they selected it as their "Hallmark House of the Year." It's a significant piece of architecture, reports IMI, planned around a Greek cross with generous use of travertine marble, concrete block, brick, ceramic tile, plaster and limestone. A brick tower and five matching chimneys on the contemporary structure atop a hill provide the illusion of a castle in the sky.
Krabacher is not alone in his enthusiasm. Architect Colburn told House & Garden, "It's one great hunk of emotion, a big baroque organ rather than a flute. It's a house that's more than a house-it has a spiritual quality of success." A bubble skylight, whose circular design matches the circles integrated in the design of the chimneys and stair tower, illuminates the Greek cross party-area of the house where 75 people can easily get lost.
"With this house," Colburn explains, "separate apartments for the son and daughter were a wonderful vehicle which gave me a whole new freedom. I was able to move sculpturally. I devised the tall stair tower for one of the apartments, and somehow the other tall chimneys followed on." (The brick chimneys serve working fireplaces in the library and every bedroom.)
"Basically," continued Colburn, "the house is a play in cubes and circles, pure that way, built on 20-ft modules. But there are bursts within the rigidity." (Continued on page 30)
Travertine walls are reflected in a black pool outlined with brick paving leading to a formal terrace of brick.
Photos and reprint rights courtesy: House & Garden magazine and Conde Nast Publications, Inc.
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masonry • November/December, 1972