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Archive Dive: Beauty at the Pool
Welcome to Archive Dive—my new excuse to obsess over the absolute treasures hiding in House Beautiful’s 130-year-old archives. Every month, we’ll dig up a favorite story from the past (epic room makeovers, wildly bold design swings, and style moments that were way ahead of their time) and talk about why they still resonate today. 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
In a sprawling feature entitled Summertime Living, the editors of the July 1968 issue of House Beautiful showcased sun-dappled spaces for indoor-outdoor living—including this “dreamy gazebo-pavilion beside a Georgia pool,” as described by then-editor Sarah Tomerlin Lee. See the spectacular structure by architects Jova, Daniels, and Busby in all its glory below.
By Seton Lindsay
The quintessence of poolside luxury and summer entertaining—the enchanting pavilion opposite, at the home of Mr. And Mrs Robert Chambers, Atlanta, Georgia. Pool and pavilion are set in a garden. Architects Jova, Daniels, and Busby borrowed concepts and details—classic Regency and Chinese Chippendale in flavor—from the architecture of the main house, stylishly fulfilling the owners’ requirements: an open loggia designed for frequent poolside entertaining, two dressing rooms with bath, and storage space for pool equipment and outdoor furniture.
The exterior is common brick and wood trellis painted white: the interior, cool, tiled, and vaulted, is a shimmer of lime green and blue, as limpid as the colors of the pool itself.
Floor Plan
A plan for summer living: An open loggia large enough for cocktails on one side, alfresco dining on the other. In the center, a bar and built-in music system. At rear, twin dressing rooms, thoughtfully equipped to please a constant stream of guests invited to enjoy this lovely pool.
Interior Rooms
Ceramic tiles in patterned sections define the cool vaulted areas of the loggia. Dressing room and bath, refreshing, dusky with green and greenery, marvelously equipped. An amusing frog rug leaps at your eye from the white ceramic tile.
Exterior
Night-lighted, the pavilion shines like a maharajah’s palace, reflects its white glamour in the pool’s dark waters.
