HOUSE CALL ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST TO HOLD AUDITIONS FOR FEATURE HOMES.

Byline: Sandra Barrera, Staff Writer

Photos by Michael Owen Baker, Staff Photographer

Donna Goodman longs to see her 1960s Stone-Fisher platform house designed by Richard Neutra featured in the pages of Architectural Digest.

As the Westlake Village psychoanalyst and doting grandmother of two later confesses, "It's always been a secret dream of mine."

But Goodman isn't ready to divulge this deep-seated desire as she leads a tour of her home, floating high on the peninsula of Lake Sherwood, with which she's hoping to wow editors at next week's open auditions. She'll only say, "I see it as an opportunity to expose people to the beauty of the era of '60s modernist homes. Because, for me, it's been a delight to live in this home."

Whether she'll get to share her delight in Architectural Digest remains to be seen. The magazine's national touring audition, stopping into the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood on March 26 and 27, is expected to draw a long line of people with their own architectural gems.

Open to anybody (not just interior designers and architects, but regular folks) with a stylish home and the photos to prove it, the audition already has netted some standouts since kicking off in New York City in October.

"People just kept coming and coming ... we've never been so tired," says Margaret Dunne, the magazine's executive editor. "But we were so happy that people actually came with such good designs.

MEET WITH ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST EDITORS

>What: A two-day open audition for professionals and nonprofessionals, to find the best new residential designs and interior decorators based on photos. Bring two photos of each major room and exteriors. Semifinalists may be featured, along with their designs, in the pages of Architectural Digest.

>When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 26 and 27.

>Where: The Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave.,

West Hollywood.

>Information: www.architecturaldigest.com, [phone].

How to get your home into A.D.

Dream of seeing your architectural gem published in a design magazine but don't know how to go about it? The editors of Architectural Digest have been solving this problem for its readers for ages.

So says Margaret Dunne, the executive editor who has been with the world's definitive design magazine in various capacities for more than 20 years.

"A lot of people have no idea how to get into A.D.," says Dunne. "They think you have to pay to get in or that you have to know somebody."

The fact is this Conde Nast publication, which has featured everything from a line shack to a palace, accepts unsolicited submissions by mail from design professionals and homeowners alike. And it's not alone.

Romantic Homes does it. Domino Magazine does it. Even Metropolitan Home on occasion has found stories this way, says Jill Simmons, senior manager of corporate communications for Hachette Filipacchi Media, which publishes Metropolitan Home.

"At one time, Met Home ran a contest called Winners and invited readers to submit their homes for publication in our Winners issue," Simmons writes in an e-mail. She adds, "We discontinued it because the entries began to be more from professionals, and this made the nonprofessional readers unhappy. As one might imagine, these were the locations that were more polished."

So, what is Architectural Digest looking for?

"Good design," Dunne says. She adds, "We will look at anything."

>S.B.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) Donna Goodman's 3,500-square-foot modernist '60s-era home on Lake Sherwood practically brings nature indoors with expansive windows and retractable glass walls. "It's been a delight to live in this home," says Goodman, who dreams of winning a spread in Architectural Digest.

(5 -- color) An old Japanese door has been turned into a table in Donna and Russ Goodman's Lake Sherwood home, designed by the noted modernist architect Richard Neutra.

Michael Owen Baker, Staff Photographer

Box:

How to get your home into A.D. (see text)