Maximum Exposure:Living Life Under Glass
In a sprawling Chicago penthouse distinguished by four fireplaces and gracious architectural finishes, the favorite gathering spot of family and guests is the 400-square-foot conservatory.
“It’s a fabulous apartment, but that is the pièce de résistance,” says owner Nancy Traylor. “It’s fun in the rain. It’s fun in the snow. It’s about as good as it gets.”
Traylor, an interior designer, and her husband bought their condominium in a four-unit limestone building some seven years ago and built the glass structure off the family room a few years later. “It’s something I always wanted,” she says. The conservatory was a significant investment in the property, well into six figures and requiring the services of both an attorney and an architect because structural changes to the condo were required. “It’s not a small expense, but what it adds to the value of the real estate can’t be counted,” she says.
Conservatories are not mere sunrooms or patio enclosures that can be added on with a kit, but full-fledged year-round additions that require a foundation and climate-control system.
James Licata is president of Town & Country Conservatories in Chicago, the firm that built the Traylors’ glass room. He says the decline in the middle housing market has affected business, but the “upper end of the market has remained fairly steady.” Rarely will someone spend less than $100,000 for a conservatory, Licata says, and prices can easily top a half million. Price isn’t necessarily related to size. “That’s a common misconception. Two buildings that are the same size can be significantly different in cost depending on the complexity of the design.”
Glass-and-iron conservatories are usually associated with 19th-century British manors though these days they’re found on post-modern residences as often as time-honored Victorian estates. The Traylors frequently use theirs for hosting sit-down luncheons and dinner parties. There are, however, no hard and fast rules. These rooms are routinely used as hot tub enclosures, art studios, home offices, mediation rooms and yoga studios.
In Georgia, Chase Mizell of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty says the most impressive conservatories “frame the outdoors as though it’s artwork”. For the prospective buyer, coming upon them is always a surprise.” Homes that consistently sell well in Mizell’s market are those that have a traditional sensibility or charm about them but with a contemporary twist. “And I’d definitely consider a glass-enclosure a contemporary twist.”
Mizell stops short of saying estates with conservatories garner a premium but notes since they’re fairly rare, “they sell for closer to asking price than a home that has 20 competitors out there.”
The benefits of a glass room are numerous. It creates a kind of faux al fresco retreat, providing a smooth transition between indoor and outdoor spaces. Glass captures light. It awakens rooms, expands space and sometimes makes its occupants feel a bit daring owing to the fishbowl-living feel. Today’s high performance architectural glass is more energy efficient with coatings available to block furniture-fading ultraviolet rays and shed dirt more easily, which is why many custom-built homes are incorporating glass with greater ubiquity.
Generally, glass is limited in each room but with this residence, glass is the dominant material of the entire residence. The Glass Pavilion in Montecito, Calif., is a stark and stunning example.
Designed, built and owned by Steve Hermann, the five-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot residence is made almost entirely of glass. It’s now on the market for $19.995 million.
“The house definitely makes a statement, especially if you’re into art, entertaining and hosting charitable events,” says listing agent Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby’s International Realty in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara county has a large philanthropic community, and the home is highly sought after as a venue for functions.
The home’s “walls” are built of Starphire glass, “a million-dollar upgrade from regular glass,” Perkins says. “You normally see that in jewelry cases because it has no color tint in it at all. So when you’re in this house, you don’t see that it’s glass. It appears as if you’re outside.”
The obvious concern is, of course, privacy. How much of it can you expect to have in a fully transparent home? Turns out quite a bit. The residence is set on 3.5 acres, for one thing. And it is strategically situated on the property. “You cannot see another house. It’s completely fenced and gated with mature landscaping. You think you’re in an oak forest,” Perkins says.
Hermann’s Glass Pavilion has prestigious precedents. In 1947, architect Mies van der Rohe displayed a model of an all-glass home at the Museum of Modern Art and
completed the actual home in 1951. The Farnsworth House, as it’s known, located in Plano, Ill., was commissioned and built as a one-room glass-and-steel retreat in which the landscaping is an integral part of the aesthetic design. Architect Philip Johnson borrowed the concept for his Glass House in New Canaan, Conn. Johnson’s home was conceived as more of a stage, a platform from which to look out over the landscaping, and he lived in the home until his death in 2005. Both are now operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and open to the public.
The Glass Pavilion is designed as a real home for real living. Still, the next owners may find themselves with a future architectural icon.