The Glass House stands on a narrow, 3-acre lot that stretches down to the Penobscot River. For Bernhoff (Bernie) Dahl, the glass connotes strength rather than fragility. Building the 3,000-square-foot Winterport home brought him stability of health, physically and mentally.
“I touched every stone out here,” said Dahl. “I built these decks. I didn’t care if I got my money back.”
In 2004, Dahl was diagnosed with prostate cancer after fighting off melanoma. A year later, the successful treatment had cleared him of cancer and he said, “I’m going to build the house I always wanted to build.”
Dahl’s Glass House, on the market for $830,000, was inspired by the Resor House designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1937 to straddle a creek in Jackson Hole, Wyo., but never was built. Dahl teamed up with architect David Merritt of Holden to design a similar house with copious amounts of glass and spacious rooms.
“This is a modernist house. This is not a Maine house,” Dahl said.
The Resor House had more glass than Dahl thought practical, so he made modifications to minimize the windows and create an interior design that would mimic the design of his home.
While constructing the Glass House, he and his then wife, Elaine, lived in the house next door, which they built in 1985. That house was built for Elaine, by Elaine, but the Glass House was Dahl’s project. Elaine, whom Dahl was married to for 31 years, died in January of methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus — MRSA.
“Elaine never bonded well with this house,” he said. “This was my house.”
To build, he subcontracted many people that he’d hired for previous projects. The key aspect of construction was that he was physically involved in the process.
“I did things I’d never done before,” he said. “I grew up in a construction family that did commercial realty and industrial development.”
Dahl attended Wheaton College, Cornell University Medical College and the University of Vermont before coming to Maine with his doctorate at 33 years old. He was the founder of Dahl-Chase Pathology Associates of Bangor.
While at Cornell in the early ’60s, he became fascinated by the “inescapable drama” of the Seagram’s Building, designed by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. The skyscraper was a tower of bronze and glass -— the trademark material of the two architects.
After studying other buildings created by Rohe and Johnson, Dahl decided he would build a glass house in his lifetime.
“I built the house to complete the loop,” Dahl said. “When you get older, you know you have a limited amount of time by definition, so I did this.”
Dahl retired from his career in pathology at age 54 when he first became sick and now describes himself as a physician, consultant, author, speaker, mountaineer and real estate developer. He’s traveled to 55 countries and has published the book “Optimize Your Life!”
He said that the Glass House was a form of therapy and it also kept an energetic man busy after years of hard work.
“I was retired and I put a certain percentage of my net worth into this house,” he said.
The exterior of the building is “vanilla and chocolate” and the interior is “a lot of strawberry.” The cream-colored siding with brown trim is seamless Dryvit, four different materials layered with a rough finish.
The flat roof is designed to shed snow in the winter, and Dahl built hinged trap doors in the deck to open in the winter so falling ice and snow doesn’t pile up. The windows have shades on tracks to keep out the sun and regulate heat.
“There was some logic to this illogic,” Dahl said.
The build certainly supported Maine businesses. The kitchen has cherry wood cabinets from Dove Tail Cabinetry in Bradford and granite countertops from Deer Isle Granite Co. Roof Systems of Maine built the roof and Downeast Concrete installed the septic system.
Dahl built the home to inspire peacefulness and bring comfort with its open rooms, waterfront views, Zen gardens, wood stove, walk-in closets, three bedrooms and 6-by-8-foot glass shower with a heated seat and three showerheads. The house has radiant and baseboard heat, a backup generator, security system, and is “wired like the Pentagon.”
The 10-foot-tall eves on the upper level and 9-foot-tall ceiling in the lower level are inlayed with 83 recessed lights.
“When you have enough money to be dangerous like this, you have an edifice complex,” Dahl said.
When Dahl and Elaine first put their two houses on the market, the 1985 house sold in three weeks. But the Glass House has been on and off the market for six years. Seven people have looked at the house and two were interested in buying, one being a couple from Saudi Arabia that described the house as “magnificent.”
“Five percent of people can afford a house like this, and 5 percent of those people will like it. Those aren’t good odds,” Dahl said.
“I have some friends at the Mayo Clinic that refer to this as Bernie’s double-wide,” he said. “This house doesn’t have curb appeal. You drive up and say, ‘What is this?’”
Beside the Glass House is a 24-by-24 concrete foundation for Dahl’s next project: a glass office inspired by Philip Johnson’s famous house made entirely of glass. Dahl has decided to replace one of the glass walls with a solid wall so he can install shelves. He estimates that it would cost $60,000-$65,000 to build.
Though the prostate cancer returned a year ago, he is optimistic about his treatment.
“If I decide to stay here, I will build it,” he said. “It could be I end up here for a long time.”
If Dahl does sell the Glass House, he plans to build a more modest house on the lot he owns next door. The project he has in mind would only take about six months to finish. And if the Glass House is sold, he says he could be out of it in three days.
“Right now I’m actually enjoying the house,” said Dahl. “How serious am I to sell it? I’ll know more next spring.”
Dahl idolizes Socrates, whom he describes as “an old man walking around, asking embarrassing questions” and also a man who never left anything in life unexamined.
“This,” Dahl said, pointing to his glass house. “This is me over-examining life.”
For information about the Glass House, call Bernie Dahl at 745-7272 or 223-9998.