Room by Room: The Grand Gallery*
Some architects hate hallways. Frank Lloyd Wright in particular felt they were a total waste of space; some of his were as narrow as eighteen inches (I've walked through his narrowest, and it's not pleasant—and I'm not even claustrophobic). Other designers use them willy-nilly, with no logical sense other than having to get from point A to point B. And it seems almost no one makes any attempt to take an aesthetic approach to them. When I finally settled on the three-level house design, I discovered that I had an opportunity to make a single long hallway that not only serviced all of my point-A-to-B needs, but offered exciting design options as well.
Thus I arrived at what I call The Grand Gallery. With a comfortable width of four feet, it became a space all its own. What makes it particularly special is all of the natural light provided by windows over the two staircases. Facing southwest toward a clearing (a.k.a. The View), these windows receive loads of light almost all day long, especially in the winter; they also offer inviting glimpses of the view, drawing one down the stairs toward the main living space. Looking down:
During the afternoon, the sunlight traces interesting paths along the walls and floor. As I was building it, I was anxious to see the space finished so I could enjoy the light show anew. Looking up:
I'd sent a sketch, below left, to my architect early in the project, but the suggestion never showed up in any of his drawings. It wasn't until I started building my home that I was at last able to realize my vision. View from the outside, below right.
When sheetrocking began, I finished the windows so as to be frame- and sill-less, to completely blend them in with their surroundings and create a contiguous surface for the length of the hallway.
Sheetrocking was finished on 21 July 2019.
At around 6:30 AM the next day, I got to see "...the space finished so I could enjoy the light show anew."
Even on a dismally cloudy day—such as this one, 16 October 2019, at 11:47 AM—the space remains well-illuminated. If anything, the light of a cloudy day is somewhat more interesting than that of a sunny one.
The first part of The Grand Gallery to be completely finished was the bottom where it meets the kitchen, on 23 December 2019, which was in preparation for the arrival of my kids.
*Originally named The Canyon, the Grand Gallery was renamed in May 2020 after a visitor remarked about its resemblance to Grand Gallery of the Great Pyramid.