With projects such as the "display case" design for the Corning Museum of Glass, New York-based Thomas Phifer and Partners have refined a reputation for working with glass. The firm's modern glass-encased house at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colo. is no exception—blurring the distinction between indoors and outdoors as natural light reigns. The 5,026 square foot Boulder House, built in 2008, is sited on an incline adjacent to open space, with entrances on both the first and upper levels. Goodacre & Company Real Estate is listing the house for sale for $4.25 million.
"We saw how glass has a wonderful quality to reflect nature, and we also saw this irregular shape as something that responded in an abstract way to the natural surroundings," said Thomas Phifer, FAIA, about the house in an article in ARCHITECT’s April 2007 issue.
Steps lead from the detached two-car garage, covered with rusted raw steel doors, to the three-story, four-bedroom (currently configured as a 2 bedroom) house, which maximizes natural light with glass curtain walls, 11 foot ceilings, and a 15-foot by 12-foot operable skylight on the open-plan living space on the upper floor. It also includes an art gallery, a pet shower, and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar.
The firm won an ARCHITECT Research and Development Award in 2009 for its LED streetlight (designed with the Office for Visual Interaction and Werner Sobek, Assoc. AIA) for the City of New York.
