Olson Designs Yet Another `Glass Home'

GLASS HOUSES: Pilchuck Glass School founder John and Anne Hauberg's four-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot Washington Park home is the latest in a string of houses to be built by architect James W.P. Olson.

The Hauberg home is climate-controlled and being built especially to show off the couple's glass collection. In addition, famed glass artist Dale Chihuly is creating a glass door for the home.

Costco Wholesale chairman Jeff and Susan Brotman's glass collection was a factor in the Olson-designed remodel of their Medina home, which is almost complete. Brotman is a friend of Chihuly's, both having graduated from Tacoma's Stadium High School.

Olson, who several months ago was named by Architectural Digest as one of the world's top 100 architects and inducted as a fellow into the American Institute of Architecture, also designed Dick and Betty Hedreen's Washington Park home.

"It sounds selfish to have big houses like this," Olson said. "But they are a way to share assets. All three (of these couples) are very much contributors to the community. They don't build the houses just for themselves. The houses are sites of many benefits and dinners. . . . They are like private extensions of the art museum."

ESTATE DIVIDED: Decorative arts from the estate of John and Theiline Pigott McCone are expected to bring in excess of $1 million at a sale in New York Jan. 31, according to Katherine Nelson Hall of the Seattle branch of Sotheby's, the auction house in charge.

Several weeks ago, rings with rubies and diamonds sold for $125,000 each in Sotheby's "Magnificent Jewelry Sale" in New York.

A few of the pieces, like a rare pair of coral-ground, 18th century "palace" bowls, estimated value $46,000, will be sold in a special sale Nov. 26 in New York. But the majority from the estate will be up for auction in January.

Proceeds from the sale of items from Norcliffe, the couple's Seattle residence in The Highlands, go to Mrs. McCone's heirs. Proceeds from the sale of items from their Pebble Beach, Calif., home, go to the McCone Foundation.

THE NUMBER SIX: Speaking of Norcliffe, the 21,000-square-foot, 32-room mansion is still on the market, and real-estate experts expect it may be there a while. Grand old homes requiring extensive upkeep aren't selling at the moment. Asking price: $6.5 million.

A home in The Highlands owned by Lucius and Phoebe Andrew III has been on the market for more than a year. The asking price, $6.8 million.

GARDENER MARTHA: Martha Stewart, symbol of perfect living, was in Seattle a few days ago to promote "Martha Stewart's Gardening."

As a recently divorced woman, she has a message for other singles: "Maintain your dignity and self-confidence," and do things that make you happy.

For her it's home, garden and friends. She is planning to have 25 friends at her Connecticut home for Thanksgiving dinner, which she'll do just like the dinner in the fall edition of her magazine, Martha Stewart Living.

As for Seattle, she spent the night in an elegant Four Seasons Olympic Hotel suite, perused Pike Place Market for fresh crab, signed books at Sur la Table, and made the talk-show rounds, dressed in gray tailored jacket and pants, a Wall Street Journal tucked under an arm.

MANGELS HONORED: John and Mary Ann Mangels received the A.K. Guy Award at a recent luncheon, for providing leadership toward improving Seattle. The award is given annually by the YMCA.

John Mangels, a retired chairman and chief executive officer of Security Pacific, is a board member of the Seattle Alliance for Education and the University of Washington Foundation, and chairman of the Fifth Avenue Theatre board.

Mary Ann Mangels is involved with the Museum of History and Industry, United Way and the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Association.

MAKING HIS MARK: Restaurateur (Buddy's Homesick Cafe, etc.) Mark Mitchell won $56,400 in a recent professional poker match in Las Vegas.

"All the famous ones were there - Amarillo Slim, Texas Dolly . . .," he said.

A longtime player, Mitchell joined 92 others in the tournament, one of the largest in the world, and came away the winner. He said he is to be listed in the poker hall of fame.

BILL WATCH: OK, we know that the attractive brunette at Bill Gates' side at the Boys and Girls Club of King County auction was Melissa Wagener. But don't get excited.

Sure, she was listed by the auction folks as sharing his bid number and his table but, she assures us, she is a mom and wife to somebody else. And, yes, she is a longtime friend of Gates.

She does, by the way, insist that an engagement between Bill and his highly protected significant other is not immediately pending and that he takes this lifestyle scrutiny very personally.

About Town by Nancy Bartley appears Sunday and Monday in the Scene section of The Times.