IMO it depends on the style of the house so post some of the architects elevations and also how high are your ceilings.When you say a single pane of glass is this what you mean

@Patricia Colwell Consulting Thanks for your reply. I am adding a rendering to my OP, but the question is really about the usability of the door, not the aesthetics. Some people think that the proposed height will result in a door that's too heavy, and hence not really usable.

The ceiling at the porch and foyer will be close to 15'.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting Yes, that's the style I am referring to, which you can also see in the rendering (which is now visible...it took a few minutes for the edit to show up)

We just installed a standard swing 42" x 10 ft high wood door with hurricane rated 5-point locking system. I don't find it heavy to open at all and I'm a small person. With the right hinges the door should not be hard to open.

Don't you have a showroom "nearby" for the doors you are considering?

We drove 6 hours round trip to visit a showroom that displayed their custom clad and glass pivot doors and custom hurricane rated doors. We didn't go with that product because it was too contemporary looking for our project. The trip was well worth it to help us make a decision and we found a great place for an early dinner before we headed back!

@chispa That's a useful data point, thanks. It doesn't seem there are any doors as large as what is being proposed in local showrooms, but I am still looking. I would definitely take a lengthy drive to try out a door in the size being contemplated, but I need to find one first!

Seen these on display at the NAHB show taller than you can fit in this design but I would recommend discussing with your window dealer if you're looking to match. The pivot hinges makes these much easier to handle.

Otherwise, the Pivot Door Company out of Denver is a pretty good resource.

@Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor Thanks. I had seen that company but they appear to have only wood-clad doors. The tallest they offer is 12.5 feet, which may be a hint...

How tall were the doors you saw at NAHB?

Fleetwood (aluminum) says they can do 12'. The demo I saw by another mfg I cannot recall was 16' but it could have been a show special and of course glass size and thickness are issues to consider. Your design is not a typical $ per square foot type so now is a good time to discuss with a window dealer.

@Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor Wow, 16 foot is huge! I am already talking with window and door vendors, but the tallest door I will be able to try is 9.5', and extrapolating that to 12' will be a guessing-game. It's an awfully big (no pun intended!) thing to get wrong so I'm looking for as many data points as possible.

Have it as tall as you want . . . as long as you have a 3'-0" x 6'-8" door leading into the house from the garage that you can use when the fancy door hinge does not work as well as the day it was installed.

I have no experience with such a door, my clients are very practical.

These are the ones we looked at. These are all impact/hurricane rated, which might be over engineered and cost more than you need if you don't have hurricanes!

https://www.siwsolutions.com/ I think the tallest they make are 10 ft tall. Marvin bought this company to expand into the coastal/impact rated market.

https://www.euro-wall.com/products/pivot-door/euro-aluminum-pivot-door/ I think they go up to 14 ft. We used this company for several 10 ft high impact rated sliding doors. Happy with the product.

@chispa Thanks for the referrals. The Euro Wall is indeed available up to 14' tall. I just spoke with one of the door manufacturers my builder often uses and they won't warrant a 5' pivot door taller than 9' and won't even build one as tall as proposed in my design.

ETA: it is worth noting that Euro Wall only warrants doors above 8' tall against bowing/warping for one year

Yeah, my architect had designed the house with a 48" wide and 10 ft tall front door ... I kind of got used to the look of the house elevations with that scale and it was hard to "settle" for anything different that would change the look of the house. Who knew you couldn't buy 10 ft tall front doors off the shelf! ;-)

Seriously, I wish my architect had noted that a door that size would be a very custom item and provided alternate elevations with more "standard" dimensions for comparison.

The local custom wood door guys were willing to go to 10 ft, but not 48" wide, which is why we ended up at 42" wide. I have 22" wide x 10ft tall side lites on either side of the door. I love the final look and have received many positive comments.

@chispa I am 100% with you...I've grown so accustomed to the look in the rendering that it will be difficult to settle for anything other than what's drawn. And yes, I hear lots of reports of architects assuming availability of products that aren't readily available (and in some cases, don't even exist!) or have other issues associated with them (e.g., no warranty is provided).

I am going to visit a door company tomorrow and it will be interesting to see what they say, and it will also be nice to get some hands-on experience with the products.

If the porch ceiling height is 15' it looks like the rendering would show a door around 12', right? Which should be easier to find than the 15'... and way less liekly to warp.

I think that anything over about 10' makes the hardware placement on the door look goofy.

@just_janni Yes, the door is specified as 12' tall with a 2'6" transom window...I think the exact porch height is 14'8". So yes a 12' is certainly easier to come by than a 15', but I've already had one company say they won't even make a 12' and another that says they will provide only a 1 year warranty (versus their usual 10 year warranty) on a door above 8' tall. This is all making me pretty leery of going down this path. You raise an interesting point about the hardware placement. The handle itself will be a vertical tube, so I think that will be ok, and I'd imagine (but could be wrong) that the lock will be lost in the enormity of the door and no one will really notice it.

Like @chispa, I have 10 foot hurricane rated doors but double w 2|3 glass. they are substantial doors but well balanced and are not overly heavy. You do realize they are huge doors when you open and close them. Our home is a new build and they may take a long time to receive. The doors that are on our home now are not the ones that we ordered, the builder said that the door company will send the doors we ordered… that was probably at least 4or 5 months ago.

Looking at your rendering, I'm seeing the windows and garage doors as strong horizontal rectangles. Doing your door that way is matching, but it fits. And the door would be easier in all ways.

Where would you start and stop the tubular handle? I usually think of those type of handles essentially running almost full height. (I have that type handle). With a 12' door - where do you start and stop it? Making it "normal" at about 6'-7' long would leave a large void, but making it full height would be ridiculous....

Maybe with the large glass would be enough to reduce the prominence of the hardware, though....

@just_janni Hopefully my design team can answer that question for me...I'm really not very good with the aesthetic stuff. But maybe it would look OK full height? I know you said it would look ridiculous, and you're probably right. Otherwise, maybe you do a 3' or so tube centered at standard doorknob height? Or even your idea of 6-7' centered at door knob height sounds like it would look OK, too. I will need to look for pictures. I do think that the hardware will blend in a bit because of the enormous scale of the door. And, if you have the handle be the same color as the frame, it will probably blend in pretty well (I think).

If I've understood correctly, you essentially want a floor-to-ceiling slice of the wall to be glass and to open. What if you had 2 panes of glass, with the bottom a 5'wide door of reasonable height and the top a fixed pane?

At any rate, I'd try drawing various arrangements of horizontal lines across the width of your glass facade. See if you can make a virtue of the division between door and fixed pane a virtue by repeating the line/extending the line.

@Jennifer K If I can't keep the current proportions, then I think it will need horizontal lines, like you propose. Without them, if the ratio of transom window to door gets higher, I think it will look very out of proportion. Also, the height of the transom window is supposed to match the window to its left.

@Mark Bischak, Architect Im sure he can help you

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In person, this entry system (door, sidelite, transom) will not be seen in this perspective with the rest of the related windows unless you're standing 100' away which may not be possible.

The door structure will require engineering by the fabricator. Likely a substantial steel frame to mount pivot points, optionally covered in bronze aluminum. Probably thicker than shown.

Option A - typical aluminum window manufacturer

Option B - steel door framed with sidelite & transom, likely glazed after install - warranties will vary based on IF you can locate the source or manufacturer. Likely minimal warranty at best.

@Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor Thank you for your thoughts. You are certainly correct about the perspective. The plan is to fabricate from iron, glazed in the field just before the house is completed. I met with the manufacturer today and they feel comfortable with a door and windows of the size I need. They offer a 5 year warranty, too, except for the paint, which has a 2 year warranty.

There was some discussion about handles, so I thought some pictures of how they do handles might be helpful. They do a lot of tube handles, and you can see what they look like here on 9' doors. They have about 15 standard handle styles, and can also do custom. The door with the glass is 9.5' tall and I believe 5.5' wide, and I really like the handle on it. It really blends in, and doesn't look awkward at all, IMHO. I thought all of the tube handles looked great, too...of course, YMMV. They did mention that they often do full-height handles, even on 10' doors.

Getting back to my original question: I was able to open even their biggest door VERY easily and comfortably using one finger. So I don't really have any concerns about a door the size my architect has specified from a usability perspective.