America's coolest houses

Who would live behind see-through walls?

When architects Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe built their respective glass houses in the late 1940s, the idea that anyone would want to live in such structures was unheard of. But their bold experiments yielded amazing houses, and introduced us to the pleasures of floor-to-ceiling transparency.

Unfortunately, even if the walls are made of glass, houses are generally private places. (No trespassing, please!) And it’s hard to see or appreciate what’s going on behind closed doors. Some of America’s coolest houses, however, let you peek behind the curtains to inspire and satisfy your curiosity.

Cool houses are always experiments, domestic laboratories where designers, builders, and homeowners work out better ways to live.

When you think of experimental architecture, you usually think big: a museum by Santiago Calatrava or a city library by Rem Koolhaas. But the innovations that truly change our lives happen at home.

Arguably, homeowners who take risks with the way their houses look, feel, or behave are far braver than big-city developers who hire some rock star architect to built an office tower. They are tinkering with their own lives, testing just how much architecture their suburban neighbors can tolerate, or jeopardizing their personal net worth to try something that no one else quite gets.

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Johnson and Mies, of course, weren’t alone. When Frank Lloyd Wright cantilevered Fallingwater over the biggest waterfall on his clients’ property, the Kaufmanns were upset that they wouldn’t be able to see it from their windows. The architect argued that they would hear the falls constantly, and it would be better to truly live with their roar all the time than look at them occasionally.

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSCBP leaders cut out of Trump ad buy decision

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

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And developments like Sea Ranch, Calif. — built by a group of idealistic architects and landscape designers in the 1960s — profoundly influenced home-building in this country. Now these innovative homes are offered as vacation rentals, so anyone can live in a laboratory for a weekend.

America’s coolest houses may have started out as experiments, but today they’re guaranteed to be an interesting visit. Even if you can’t sip your morning coffee in the kitchen of California’s Hearst Castle, spending a little time in someone else’s pad might give you a few new ideas about your own.