Two Pennsylvania State University (PSU) professors, Dr. Rose Cologne and Dr. Ruth Ayres, asked the Pittsburgh architects to design houses across the street from each other in a newly opened tract at the top of a hill. The houses follow organic design principles and overlook the hillside with terraces and large windows. They are made of simple materials, such as local stone, Cemesto panels, concrete block, and wood beams. The Cologne house originally had Shoji screens made by a Korean friend of the owner who had studied in Japan. The Ayres house is on two levels that step down the hillside. Berndtson and Brierly designed a third house east of State College (1956; 225 Twigs Lane) for the Braun family.
A different sort of modernist, Gregory Ain, a California architect who headed PSU's Department of Architecture between 1963 and 1967, designed a rectilinear house with vertical siding for Dr. William Ginoza (1966–1967; 962 E. McCormick Avenue). Nestled into a wooded lot, it was the last of Ain's houses to be realized, and illustrates the tension in his work between a conventional house and a work of art.