Modern Living – Slater Home, 1966.

Slater dog reclines poolside.

Abby Slater, 7, plays chess with friend Paul John, 9, at breakfast table near kitchen counter. Kitchen, breakfast area and main living-dining area beyond can be closed to each other or left open to sun which flows through glass doors.

Aerial view shows connecting pavilions: master bedroom pavilion in foreground; main living pavilion in center; service pavilion in rear.

Family and friends dine in lofty main pavilion. To the left is a smaller breakfast area opening to the kitchen counter beyond.

Master bedroom in the sleeping pavilion. Elaine and Jim Slater sit on their private deck outside bedroom. Floor and celing boards form hexagonal patterns and old-fashioned ceiling fan draws in breezes.

[ Images via LIFE photo archives / ©LIFE ]
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Warm 1960s photography of the modern indoor/outdoor Slater home in Boca Raton, Florida. This photo collection was shot by veteran LIFE magazine photographer Michael Rougier for the ‘Ideas in Houses’ section of the February 11, 1966 issue of LIFE. This ‘honeycomb of covered hexagons’ vacation residence was designed by architect Paul Robin John. ‘To give the family privacy and take in the best view, (John) placed the house on the diagonal of the narrow waterfront footage. This way the house rambles across the property without seeming cramped.’

The Slater vacation home in Boca Raton, Fla. is a cluster of airy pavilions around a big swimming pool. When they want company, the Slaters find it at the pool. When they want privacy, they disappear into the labyrinth of patios or one of the six-sided pavilions. No matter where they are, they still get the feeling of the Florida breeze and landscape. From the inside, through the big doors of the house, they are open to the tropical gardens. From the outside, they can look into the pleasing shapes of the cypress-paneled house and right through to the palm trees beyond. From almost anywhere they can watch the passing traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway which runs by the house.

[…]

Inside the sequence of six-sided pavilions it is almost impossible to go in a straight line from one room to another. Slants and zigzags give an illusion of distances greater than they really are and often disorient guests. But they please the Slaters and fulfil the practical purposes of separating areas and people.

Read more > Pavilions by the Water + Living in the Blueprint
( LIFE, February 11, 1966 )

–Amy
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