Exterior Stairs

Yvette Leeper-Bueno and Adrian Bueno’s home, on West 112th Street in New York City, is recognizable by its two-story bay window angled to bring light and views into the dark, narrow structure. "There’s a threshold of planting between the outside and inside,” says architect Laura Briggs, citing the blooming boxes on the sidewalk, the rear deck, and the master-suite terrace (above the bay window). Photo by Adam Friedberg. See how the rooms stack up inside the narrow shell.

Here's a view of the steel and glass master bedroom as it cantilevers over the patio and yard. You can see the cantilevered concrete patio in the foreground. The structure of the building is more common to commercial construction—steel framing with metal studs, storefront glass, and a concrete topping slab poured onto corrugated metal decking at the second floor. Photo by Brian Mihealsick.

Toronto designer Julia Knezic built this house for her own family in a narrow lot next to her mom's house. Photo by Sean Galbraith. Check out the interiors here.

Every evening, the residents climb the 32 flights of steel stairs to retreat in their “nest”.

An exterior stairway meeting the main entrance leads to the guesthouse.

A mere 172 square feet, the treehouse in the hills of Brentwood in Los Angeles was designed by Rockefeller Partners Architects, Inc. as a refuge, gallery and guest cottage

In early 2006, Katie and John Eller reached out to a friend for a reference. "She said, 'I want your architect and your contractor,'" recalls Sarah Willmer, founder of Studio Sarah Willmer, Architecture. "Katie had heard so many renovation horror stories and saw that her friends were having such a good time with us; we just had a such a good rapport with her friend." Soon after, the couple sat down with Willmer to plan the renovation of their old Victorian home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. Photo by Ken Gutmaker

In Kansas City, Missouri, a family sought to construct a new home using prefabricated structural insulated panels (SIPS) instead of traditional frame construction. The entire kit house is composed of 4' x 8' sections, and the shell was constructed in about a week. The project’s relatively low cost, quick build time, and highly insulated envelope were positives, but the panels also have their limitations. “Most SIP projects look pretty stupid,” Jamie says. “They haven’t been manipulated by someone who’s thinking creatively.” In this case, Jamie augmented the simple panel system with a dynamic cantilever.

Russell-Clarke tends a small garden.