Modernist Marvel

A minimalist desert home half-full of glass.

Renowned architect Richard Meier called white the “most wonderful color” because it’s “against a white surface that one best appreciates the play of light and shadow, solids and voids.” It’s with this notion in mind that Nevada designers Katie and Charles Reibel set about creating the 8,150-square-foot home they call Shades of White. Located in the Ridges desert development west of Las Vegas, the home — conceived, designed, and built for the wedding of the Reibels’ daughter Catherine, who is also an architect — is an all-white modernist marvel of indoor-outdoor living, with interior spaces flooded with diffused sunlight thanks to doors and windows from Western Window Systems.

Categories

Residential
Classic Line
Series 600
Windows Multi-slide door

Location

Nevada

Shades of White’s large moving walls of glass flood interior spaces with natural light.

“A strong connection to the outdoors embraces and supports the surrounding nature and desert landscape, thus enticing the residents into an enriching living experience,” says Katie Reibel, co-owner of Simply+Modern design firm. “Massive glass windows extend indoor living areas into the curated landscape, creating a visual conversation between nature, architecture, and art.” In fact, glass is the most significant architectural design element of the minimalist but ultra-modern home, Reibel says, making up almost half of the structure.

“Every light-filled vision, every picturesque view is my favorite.”

- Katie Reibel,

co-owner, Simply+Modern

A virtual wall of windows in the master suite.

“The importance of glass in the design of this home cannot be overstated,” she says. “Sunlight and shadows dance throughout the home during the day, inspiring an environment of optimism, well-being, and creativity.”

The showpiece glass element is a 25-foot-wide, five-panel Series 600 Pocketing Multi-Slide Door in the great room that frames spectacular views of the mountains in the distance. The 12-foot-high multi-slide door, which opens to a backyard patio complete with a fire pit and swimming pool, “enhances the ethereal vision of sunlight and shadows, desert and water, city lights and mountain ridges.”

The home’s design has a strong connection to the natural desert landscape.

Glass makes up almost half the structure in Shades of White.

Elsewhere in the home, 12-foot-high, three-panel Series 600 Multi-Slide Doors open each of the bedrooms to furnished balconies. In the master bedroom and master bathroom, impressive arrays of nine Series 600 Fixed Casement Windows form a virtual wall of windows. A similar arrangement of 12 casement windows achieves the same effect in the dining space adjacent to the great room. And a stunning two-story atrium that encloses the staircase, which is visible from the front of the home, features walls of windows on two sides.

“The importance of glass in the design of this home cannot be overstated.”

- Katie Reibel,

co-owner, Simply+Modern

The home’s staircase is encased by windows leading up to the ceiling that complement the glass paneling stair rail.

“Every light-filled vision, every picturesque view is my favorite, depending on the ever-changing luminosity and shadows during each day and throughout each season,” Reibel says. The clean aesthetic and environmentally sensitive design make the perfect home for Western Window Systems’ forward-thinking products.

Each of the bedrooms features a wall-length Series 600 Multi-Slide Door.

“Simply+Modern prides itself on a reputation of using only the highest-quality products, fixtures, and finishes,” says Reibel. “And Western Window Systems products are durable, energy efficient, well-crafted, and beautifully engineered.”