Boston Magazine - November 1993 TRADITIONAL - NOT Barbara and John Sparks quite literally threw tradition out the window. Their five-room house, built in the early eighteenth century, sits just a few feet from the curb and is located only two blocks from the bustling center of Rockport. Space is at a premium in the low-ceilinged center-entrance Colonial. Last year, when the couple sold their Boston condominium and consolidated in their Cape Ann weekend cottage, Barbara Sparks discovered there was no good place to read. Jamming her rocker and lamp into the kitchen only made the limited space more confining. Besides reading, the Sparkses spend much of their time nurturing colorful perennial beds that seems to float like islands on their impeccably groomed side lawn. So when the couple began to think about building an addition, reading and gardening converged. The result is a hexagonal addition 14 feet in diameter that is physically linked to the house by a breezeway and visually linked to the garden by large windows overlooking the peony, daffodil, and tulip beds. Enhancing the alfresco atmosphere is a three-step drop in elevation, which sets the reading room on nearly the same level as the yard. The six walls of the room, designed by Luna Design Group of Lynnfield, are unified by a continuous band of transom windows near the ceiling. Two sides of the hexagon are mostly glass; a third is dominated by the breezeway. The other three walls accommodate a closet and a potting bench with a sink for garden work. The Sparkses have furnished the room sparingly with a coffee table and two chairs, so that the focus is on the main activity it was designed for: reading. Having a reading room - unconventional though it is - has changed Barbara Sparks's daily habits. "I read more," she says.