In Rock Creek Park, Suspended in the Trees

The stream and the "inspiration trees" drew Travis Price to his smallish lot in the heart of Rock Creek Park.

The land was so steep and daunting, from a builder's perspective, that it came relatively cheap in a pricey neighborhood.

"It still took every penny I had to buy it," said Price, a D.C. architect. "But I wanted it. I wanted to build on it and go as far as I could with the design and then one foot further. . . . I really needed to make a philosophical statement."

Too often, when people build a home, they're hung up on the budget, the square footage and the number of rooms, Price said. But they do not need to be so practical right from the start.

"You do have to deal with all that," Price said. "But pause for a minute. Go into your dreams. . . . Figure out what revs you up. Bite off far more than you can chew because you can always spit out what you can't swallow."

Price built what he described as "New York loft meets treehouse" in 2001 after receiving the required approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. He has since put his house on the market for $3.5 million . A magnificent oak with roots digging into the rock below it captured his imagination when he first spotted the property, evoking images of the shrines he admired during trips to Cambodia and Nepal.

"I wanted to live suspended in those trees, to be one with them and float in the landscape," he said.

The house does not touch the ground. It's held up by two red steel columns bolted to concrete footers buried deep underground and anchored by steel rods in the front and back of the building, he said, like half a suspension bridge.

The front of the house, a curve of horizontal copper, faces a quiet cul-de-sac of Tudor, Colonial and Romanesque homes.

To enter, visitors cross a glass walkway that bridges a slight gap between the front lawn and a sliding glass door that opens onto a translucent white partition.

"You face that wall, and you're really not sure where you're going," Price said. "But take a few steps to the right, turn the corner and you're back in the forest, looking through a two-story glass wall."

The idea is to go from hidden (the copper wall) to veiled (the translucent wall) to revealed (the glass wall.)

To add warmth, Price used unpainted maple plywood on the walls throughout the house. Off the center of the main living space is an enclosed spiral staircase that connects all four levels of the house.

Price said he hopes his home inspires others to avoid the easy path of simply blending in.

"A home is really a storyboard of the soul," Price said. "You need to go to a place inside yourself, and that starts the trail."