Whether you call it art glass, leaded glass, stained glass, or in the parlance of Frank Lloyd Wright, “light screens”—we’ve been noticing designers are embracing translucent wonder a little more as of late. Flip through the pages of AD over the past year, and we find the tradition blooming particularly on the West Coast: Note Jennifer Garner’s house, wherein a family reading nook becomes a showcase for a custom stained glass piece paying homage to a favorite children’s book; or the pop of glossy handmade color in a window near the ceiling of a refurbished, blackened Los Angeles dining room from our most recent issue. Indeed, colored glass is having yet another renaissance—and the Californian designer is cleverly lighting the way.
“Glass art adds another decorative layer that evokes something transformative, especially as the light and color change throughout the day,” says Daniella Gohari, design director at LA-based AD PRO Directory firm Electric Bowery. Whether preserving the past like Reath Design did in a 1920s Los Feliz home or installing contemporized glass rondel doors and screens in Northern California a la Commune Design, during an era of AI and digital noise, art glass is taking hold as a way back towards something tangible with a touch of the hand.