… is living the dream

When opened, the sliding glass doors give the impression that the entire downstairs is actually a giant porch. Photo by Jeanine Michna-Bales

When opened, the sliding glass doors give the impression that the entire downstairs is actually a giant porch. Photo by Jeanine Michna-Bales

Living in the fabled “glass house” could make even the most unabashed individuals feel exposed, but for White Rock area resident Robert Wright it was a real-life dream come true.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

Wright envisioned a relatively minuscule greenhouse-like home on a sprawling property he owned in the Dallas area.

“I’d designed a house that was a glass box in a garden,” Wright says. “It was 1,000 square feet, and I had a 16,000-square-foot-lot. So 1,000 square feet would be covered, and everything else was going to be outdoors.”

[quote align=”right” color=”#000000″]“I’d designed a house that was a glass box in a garden.”[/quote]

Sadly, few shared his enthusiasm. “I couldn’t find anybody to finance it, because they said it was a ‘house for one,’ ” he explains — meaning that he would be the only person who could live in the small space, and if he ever tried to sell it, he’d most likely be the only person who would truly appreciate its value.

Fortunately, however, someone had a similar idea and was already working on it.

In 2005, Dallas architects Truett Roberts and Thad Reeves with TKTR Architects designed a house that featured several floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors and a series of a rough, inexpensive finishes, making the structure reminiscent of a high-end tree house. Before it was finished, Reeves left the company to form A Gruppo Architects, but TKTR Architects forged ahead, and the house eventually was constructed near White Rock Lake in 2009.

Roberts and Reeves had four main objectives. They wanted to create something that felt like a part of the backyard but that still maintained a level of privacy, and they wanted the house to embody modern design and innovative architectural elements yet stay within the original owner’s modest budget.

“We don’t shy away from small houses that are a lot of design but inexpensive to build, especially in [the White Rock area],” Roberts says.

In the end, the house measured 1,450 square feet, although the extended overhangs from the roof make it look slightly larger from the outside. The team also designed the home to be built for a mere $100 per square foot, although Roberts says he’s not sure what the official total was, and he doubts it could be built for that today.

Once it was complete, the original owner, an avid gardener, honed the surrounding landscape to give it the Eden-like lushness the property boasts today, and then he put the house on the market.

That’s when Wright’s daughter, also a Dallas architect, saw the house on the cover of a local architectural publication and immediately called Wright to tell him about it.

“I bought it that day,” Wright says.

This home was on the seventh annual American Institute of Architects Dallas Tour of Homes in 2013, and it will also be featured on the 2014 White Rock Home Tour April 26-27.