Mike and Jean Ysbrand could live with the split-entry foyer and floor-to-ceiling brick fireplace in the 1977 home they bought seven years ago. But for the Ysbrands, who often entertained, the ...

Carrying the social engineering a step further, designers next introduced the “split foyer,” which directs traffic up and down from a locale between two floors—giving equal value to kitchen and ...

Tastes change; so, too, an owner’s requirements of their home. In the early 1960s, for instance, no floor plan concept seemed better suited to the demands of modern life than the split level — which ...