Hey Architect,

Heres what I would do.

Set up the lighting first, start off with a simple 3 point lighting set up with a curved nurbs plane in the background that makes up the floor and the wall, have this a white lambert material

Happymat did a great little tutorial on 3 point lighting, if you have a search in the lighting froum the link's in there.

Once your happy with the lighting with some simple materials than I would go onto creating the materials.

One thing to remember is that you can go higher than 1 for most values in maya, for example specualr roll off, spec colour can be cranked up over a value of 1 too.

also never try to make a colour a "pure" colour as nothing is ever totaly black or red etc etc, jsut add a little touch of blue etc and a touch of white on them, only a bit but it will make it look better.

as for setting for a glass material, heres something that I posted a while ago that might get you going in the right direction.

Also have a look into the fresnell effect for creating materials that have that extra added realism.