'Cool' Golf Course Setting - Page 2

"I think the interesting thing about it is…[how] they worked together to design and build it," recalls Gobble's brother, Bob Wilkinson, who inherited the home with Lynn when mother Irene died in March after living most of her life there. "It was one of Roger's earlier homes. He studied with Frank Lloyd Wright [at Tallesin], and he had a lot of ideas."

"It's very simple but it's like, 'Boy, we got this right!'" said Bob, an Environmental Studies professor at UC Santa Barbara, noting that the house won an American Institute of Architects award in 1956 for its modern style and economical construction, both Lee trademarks. "From that standpoint, it really did start a pattern."

"He [Lee] did it custom for them at what they could afford," said Gobble, an artist living in Portland. "He wasn't an architect that tried to make these fancy designs. His legacy was simplicity."

And, of course, the modern characteristics of natural light streaming through walls of glass and an open floor plan make the house seem larger than it is. If a buyer should want to expand the house, Lee left unbuilt plans to accommodate that desire.

"As a child growing up there, what I loved was [that] the light from the outside was what was [see] in the inside. I was always very aware of being part of the landscape and nature," said Gobble. "It's just really, really well designed."

For example, she said, "There's no air conditioning, but the air comes up from the golf course and cools the home. You get this nice breeze. Mom called it 'instant air conditioning.' It's very, very easy to live there in the summer heat."

The grounds are landscaped in trees and a variety of unusual rocks and succulents that Irene Wilkinson collected from around the world. The house itself, however, remains just as it was built. Quite original.

"For 60 years and not doing a lot to it, it really looks pretty good," said Gobble, conceding that some of the wood paneling could use restoration and the carport repaved. "My brother and I [feel] like it was an old car that was kept stock."

For more information about the Wilkinson House, contact listing agent Thomas Westfall of Alain Pinel Realtors.