Gaining privacy in style - innovative wall

Sunset, July, 1993 by Peter O. Whiteley

Adding a wall hid this New Mexico tract house from the street and gave it a contemporary flair

BLOCKING OUT reality can have its benefits. Just ask architect Berry Langford, who wanted to hide the fact that more than 17,000 cars passed within a few yards of his Albuquerque house every day.

Squeezed into a slender corner lot facing a major thoroughfare, Langford's house allowed pedestrians and motorists clear views into the kitchen and living room. To gain privacy, Langford built a graceful, 6-foot-tall wall that runs the length of the house and wraps around the exposed end. The wall, made of stucco-covered concrete blocks, curves in and out at varying distances from the house and street; because it encroaches slightly on city easement at some points, a variance was required before construction.

Langford also added a two-layer trellis that extends outward from the house walls to the new privacy wall, shading the space in between and giving the flat-roofed tract house more detailed and airy lines. Outside the walls, he planted a garden filled with reseeding wildflowers, which softens the walls and delights weary commuters and passersby.