The “Maisons Lafayette” complex is located at the western end of Clifton, not far from the lower end of Lafayette Avenue, which gives the complex its name. The townhouses that formed the “French Village” were the first condominiums in Cincinnati when erected in 1967.

The entire complex was designed by Pansiera, Dohme & Tilsley, a prominent architectural firm established in 1949 and now called PDT Architects/Planners. The eleven one, two, and three-story townhouses are arrayed ingeniously on the slope at the base of the Mt. Storm promontory. The winding driveways, paths and steps suggest a French mountainside village. No two units are alike, and they relate in different ways to the site and each other. Each unit has its own outside area and one or two garages, plus access to a picturesque garden in the woods beyond the complex.

The French Village townhouses are well designed with spacious and efficient layouts, attractive balconies and a sense of privacy and security, despite being clustered. The original owners of Unit B-8 were Mr. and Mrs. David Stevens. Since 1988 it has been the home of Sandy Cohan, a former French teacher and head of the Department of Modern Languages at Walnut Hills High School, and a perspicuous collector of contemporary art. She has designed the interiors to provide subtle backgrounds for furnishings and vividly colored works of art—paintings, drawings, prints, as well as sculptures, glass objects, and fine ceramics, including an original Picasso plate that has been reproduced for the mass market!

The house itself, entered through a door rescued from the McAlpin House (on the site of the Cincinnati Woman’s Club), is a three-story rectangle into which a surprising variety of room shapes, sizes and orientatios have been fitted. The living room, lit by windows on three sides, is centered on a fireplace faced with gold leaf designed and installed by Susan Noble, who also provided a melted-wax wall treatment in the marble-floored entry-level powder room. These shimmering effects and the use of gold, silver, copper objects and surfaces throughout contribute a sense of gentle glitter that offsets the basic neutrality. The dining room is occupied by a glass table, like the frequent metal furniture, a device for using fairly large pieces while retaining visibility and spaciousness.

In contrast, the galley kitchen redone in 1990 is like a shot in the arm: Aegean teal blue walls, black Corian counters, with an inset strip of red, and a jauntily angled breakfast counter retain their freshness. Upstairs, an extra bathroom, although decorated in earth tones, sparkles with polka dots.

Upstairs the large master bedroom in pale earth-tones is appropriately restful. The master bathroom was deservedly featured in Design Magazine and on television’s “Around the House.” Ingenuity and exquisite craftsmanship combine with wit and convenience in the sink treated as a handsome piece of furniture and the “lipstick shelves” squeezed into the last available inch of space! The shades drawn from below are another functional idea.

The lower floor provides an independent guest suite and a luxurious yet informal library/music room with its own fireplace and a fine grand piano. These rooms open onto the generous terrace above a slope among trees. It is defined by free-form low brick walls with varied planters and a brick cooking oven as a focal point. Altogether, the Cohan Townhouse is a talented, confident woman’s world in miniature, a treasure-chest of informed yet quirky taste.