When El Dorado architects were commissioned to create an urban family home in the Westside district of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, they decided to strive for quality over quantity in the less than 2,000 square foot structure of the Shelton Marshall Residence.
Taking advantage of the terrain, the eastern entrance is off an alleyway at ground level. There is the garage and an attached studio above ground as well as a yard made of a transplanted prairie ecosystem that is actually on the roof of the home. You reach the primary level by taking stairs down six feet into an entry courtyard within the center of the U shaped home. Around this central courtyard, large sliding glass doors lead into the kitchen on one side and the bedrooms on the other. The living room is on the western end of the house and leads off to a full-length front porch. Since the western edge of the property drops off dramatically to a road twenty feet below, the porch seems to float among the branches of the trees growing there.
The Shelton Marshall Residence is nearly invisible at ground level and mostly hidden from the road below; a near-perfect privacy in an urban environment.
