Madisonhouse, named for the Madison neighborhood of La Quinta, California, where it is located, could also be called “Open House” in terms of its design. And that is how the property's dwellers wanted it. XTEN Architecture was given almost completely free rein to create a true outdoor-living home, with unobstructed views of the area's mountains. After executing sun diagrams and desert-climate studies, the architects created a 10,650-square-foot house that features expanses of sliding and pivoting glass doors and walls in even the most private of spaces—the bathrooms.

There were, of course, a few programming mandates, such as separate his and hers baths in the second floor's master-bedroom suite. The husband's is like one giant shower, with a drain integrated into the room's terrazzo floor. The wife's has a similar shower, with a drain floor, but the room's centerpiece is a sculptural, freestanding tub. Next to the shower in the husband's bath, a full-height glass wall slides into a pocket frame, giving him direct access to an outdoor terrace that overlooks the house's courtyard; the bath sliding wall for the wife opens onto a terrace that is exposed to a swimming pool below and a nearby golf course. The differences end there: both spaces feature white marble walls with custom chrome accents and marble-topped rift-cut-oak sink vanities. The medicine cabinets in each of the spaces have built-in lighting and television screens behind their mirrored fronts. Mechanized shades in the ceiling can be lowered to afford privacy in either bath, and the generous overhangs of the ground-level floor's roof help shield the wife's tub from public view.