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House Beautiful has revisited its 1979 Design House of the Year, a Las Vegas home designed as a garden oasis on a sandy desert site. The project centered on a courtyard pool and combined trellises, tented spaces, soaring ceilings and Marimekko patterns; the archive feature frames it as a snapshot of design ideas from the period.
House Beautiful has revisited its 1979 Design House of the Year, a home built on a sandy, treeless site in Las Vegas, Nevada, and organized around a central courtyard pool. The archive feature highlights how architect William Turnbull Jr., interior designer Ristomatti Ratia and the magazine’s editors used water, shade and patterned interiors to shape a retreat from the desert climate.
The original project was presented as a garden oasis designed to inspire builders, using standard building materials with custom architectural details. The house’s rooms face the courtyard, where a pool and palm tree form the main visual focus. Trellises and fabric filter sunlight, while high ceilings, exposed beams and visible air-conditioning returns contribute to the open, pavilion-like interiors described in the archive.
The design brought together Turnbull, Ratia and House Beautiful editors. The original report identified the American Wood Council as co-sponsor and named builders Connie Sommers, Duane Daum and Ernest Becker of Rancho Bel Air, Nevada. Ratia, then creative vice-president of Marimekko, designed the custom furniture and brought the Finnish design company’s vivid flowers and grid patterns into rooms throughout the house.
The archive feature calls the kitchen the home’s connective center, linking the rooms to the courtyard. Elsewhere, the project included a high-ceilinged primary suite, children’s room and exercise room, along with private decks, a mirador, a swimming grotto and a trellis-covered hot tub. Canvas canopies and tent-like treatments appeared both indoors and outdoors, extending the project’s resort-inspired approach beyond the pool.
A Desert Home Built Around Water
The project offers a concrete example of how a home’s layout and materials can respond to a demanding setting. Rather than treating the desert as scenery outside the windows, the designers made the courtyard pool the organizing feature, with rooms oriented toward it and shaded outdoor spaces enclosed by masonry walls. The arrangement connected everyday domestic spaces to water, planted greenery and filtered light.
Its continuing interest also lies in the contrast between practical construction and decorative choices. The original report said the design used standard builder’s materials, then tailored them with battens, lattices, canvas, bright patterned surfaces and custom furniture. That combination gives the archive feature a record of both a specific 1979 project and the period’s approach to residential design; it does not establish how the house has performed or changed over time.
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The 1979 Project and Its Designers
The home appeared in House Beautiful’s May 1979 issue as the magazine’s Design House of the Year. The original report, written by Susan Grant Lewin, described a design collaboration assembled by the magazine. San Francisco-based architect William Turnbull Jr. shaped the house and its courtyard plan; Ristomatti Ratia and designer Michael Haskins contributed to the interiors and furnishings.
Materials and products named in the original report included redwood, Formica, Marimekko wallpaper, American Olean tile and a 3M Scana mural. The archive feature is part of House Beautiful’s Archive Dive series, which revisits past magazine stories and discusses why their designs remain of interest. Its present-day discussion is editorial framing, while the home’s original specifications and collaborators come from the 1979 report.
“It’s part history lesson, part design deep-dive, and 100 percent a love letter to the iconic taste that’s defined HB for over a century.”
— Jo Saltz, House Beautiful editor in chief, introducing the Archive Dive series
The Home’s Present-Day Status
The archive feature describes the house as it was presented in 1979, but does not report its current condition, ownership or use. It also does not establish whether the original interiors, furniture, landscaping or pool remain in place, or whether later renovations have altered the design. The article’s renewed attention to the project is not evidence that the home has recently been restored, sold or designated as a landmark.
Further Archive Features Ahead
House Beautiful presents Archive Dive as a monthly series revisiting stories from its archives. The publication’s introduction says future installments will look back at past rooms, renovations and design choices, but the supplied feature does not name a next subject or publication date. Readers seeking information about the Las Vegas property today would need reporting beyond this historical feature.
Key Questions
What was House Beautiful’s 1979 Design House of the Year?
It was a Las Vegas home designed as a desert retreat around a central courtyard pool. House Beautiful featured it in its May 1979 issue.
Who designed the house?
The original report names architect William Turnbull Jr. and interior designer Ristomatti Ratia, working with House Beautiful editors and designer Michael Haskins.
What features defined the design?
The home faced its rooms toward a courtyard pool and used trellises, canvas canopies, high ceilings and patterned interiors. The plan also included private decks, a mirador and a swimming grotto.
Is the house still intact today?
The archive feature does not say. It gives no update on the home’s current condition, ownership or interiors.
Source: housebeautiful.com
