The West Lake Hills residence monikered "Soaring Wings" is no stranger to press coverage. Designed by Austin-based architect Winn Wittman the 6,069-square-foot house has been featured in numerous shelter magazines and websites (including on the estimable Curbed.com) since its completion in 2007.
The house—which was designed to contain both personal and highly public areas for entertaining—was also a set for a yet-to-be-released Terrence Malick film—currently called Weightless—about torrid Austin music-scene love triangles, featuring Christian Bale and Natalie Portman.
Built into a hillside with red iron on concrete piers sunk into deep rock, the house is the result of the hours of skilled workmanship and several engineering feats, including much cantilevering, the construction of a glass-and-steel bridge to connect the wings, and 2,500 square feet of decks, some of which are made of individually carved pieces of Pink Arizona Sandstone.
Another high-wire act was the installation of a 3,200-pound bathtub carved from a single block of granite that sits in a bed of Mexican beach pebbles, which extend through the floor-to-ceiling glass from the Japanese rock garden.
Then there are granite vanities, steam shower with body sprays and fixtures designed by Philippe Starck, and the Venetian plaster archway over the bath and dressing areas.
Soaring Wings has four bedrooms, four and half bathrooms, miles of entertainment space, 146 enormous windows, and many more features than can be listed here, all in the extremely convenient West Lake Hills area. It can be yours for $5,456,000.
• For $6.5M, a Dramatic Texas Mansion with Cantilevers Galore [Curbed.com]
• Winn Wittman Architecture website
• Weightless [IMDB]