The client was an art history professor with a deep devotion to Greene & Greene — and to the Gamble House front door in particular. She wanted to know if something in that spirit was possible for her own Alameda home. The result was three panels: two large panels near the front entry, and a third, smaller panel positioned so the tree appears to wrap around an exterior corner of the house — though it opens into the laundry room.

The HOA required a uniform exterior appearance, so the two front entry panels were mounted on the interior over the existing sash. The tree trunk is built from Uroboros brown ring mottled glass — a hand-rolled art glass with organic, crater-like texture and deep color variation across each sheet. Rather than cutting uniformly, each piece came from a different area of the sheet, so the finished trunk shifts the way real bark does: lighter here, darker there, the grain never quite the same twice. The background throughout is Wissmach W-58-WO.

The panels were installed on a rainy, overcast day. At one point the light through the glass shifted — warm and luminous enough that it seemed the sun had come out. Opening the front door confirmed: still raining. The glass was doing that entirely on its own.