Most of the greatest glass boxes were designed by Mies, who realized the potential of suspending a "glass curtain" on a steel frame as early as 1928 with his Barcelona Pavilion: Since all the support needed was provided by the metal, the architect could use walls to sculpt space, as Mies did brilliantly with a delicate balance of transparent and reflective surfaces.

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The 399 rooms start at 484 square feet and feel even larger thanks to their glass-curtain walls.

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Thanks to its 24 floors and M-shaped footprint, most of the 185 rooms have impressive city views through their glass-curtain walls, both from the bedrooms and the bathrooms, which are fully half as big as the bedrooms.

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As far as future technologies, Holtzer and Twardowski see a few on the horizon: auto-tinting curtain wall glass is not far away.

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The homes were often perched on stilts at the top of a hill, overlooking a canyon, with magnificent views through curtain walls of glass.

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