How-To: Giant Windows

Clad in copper panels that Holl had fabricated by the Kansas City, Missouri, company Zahner, the house is daylit by a host of rectangular skylights (inspired by the musical staff) punched through the roofs and the pool’s floor.

A second-story Dutch door above the canopy ushers in sunlight and breezes. “Light is really important in the Pacific Northwest because it’s dark for most of the year,” says the resident. The cedar-clad facade is pierced with thoughtfully placed windows, which frame views and “actively engage the idiosyncratic nature of the place,” says architect Tom Kundig.

Irish-born actress Cornelia Hayes-O’Herlihy gazes across the Venetian roofscape. Her cozy glass enclosure rests atop the new home designed by her husband, architect Lorcan O’Herlihy.

Yvette Leeper-Bueno and Adrian Bueno’s home, on West 112th Street in New York City, is recognizable by its two-story bay window angled to bring light and views into the dark, narrow structure. "There’s a threshold of planting between the outside and inside,” says architect Laura Briggs, citing the blooming boxes on the sidewalk, the rear deck, and the master-suite terrace (above the bay window). Photo by Adam Friedberg. See how the rooms stack up inside the narrow shell.

The northern facade, which faces the water, takes in the view via double-height windows in the main living room, plus terraces punched into the second floor.

A mature avocado tree shades the hardscaped patio located just outside the great room.