Grande opening: a gulf coast vacation home joins two proud Florida traditions

Custom Home, May-June, 2002 by Bruce D. Snider

When you think of resort communities in south Florida. you might not think of places loaded with historical context, places with a lot of "there" there. But in the case of Boca Grande you should. Located north of Fort Meyers on the Gulf Coast's Gasparilla Island, the town dates from the turn of the 20th century, when a new railroad began hauling phosphate to a deepwater shipping dock here. The same rail line opened access to the area's legendary tarpon and snook fishing waters, giving rise to a village where dock workers rubbed elbows with sport fishermen and wealthy northern vacationers. Today the phosphate dock is a ruin, the rail line a well-used jogging path. But Boca Grande remains, its century-old banyan trees overarching narrow streets and shading the brightly painted wood-frame cottages that give the town its distinct character.

"They're calling it Boca Grande or cracker" says architect Sam Holladay of the low-slung local style, which is characterized by shallow-pitched tin roofs, deep overhangs, and lapped board siding. Having practiced in this part of Florida for some 30 years, Holladay is comfortable in the local vernacular, but he is equally fluent in a more contemporary architectural dialect. As principal of Seibert Architects, Holladay is the successor to Tim Seibert, a founder of the influential ,Sarasota School style, which helped define Florida modernism in the 1950s and 1960s. In this beachfront house, Holladay and builder Peter Hayes reconcile not only Boca Grande cracker with Florida modern, but also the building itself with Mother Nature, who tidies the beaches in these parts with the occasional hurricane.

At only 4 feet above sea level, the site's elevation dictated that living spaces be raised a full floor above grade. In the event of a hurricane, ground-level walls are designed to blow out and let the sea roll through, leaving the finished levels above to ride out the storm perched safely on concrete piers. Holladay devoted much of the ground level to parking space for four cars, leaving an uncluttered courtyard at the house's street-side entry. Elevated above grade, the entrance gains a welcome degree of privacy from the street.

Beyond the front door, a compact entry foyer opens onto an expansive living and dining area that Holladay calls the house's "Wow" space. A full 26 feet high from the floor to the intersecting ridges of its open roof structure, the room is a fugue-like composition of repeating and intertwining themes, with each interior elevation telling its own unique story.

To the north, a painted wall incorporates a striking three-panel installation produced on commission by a local artist. The middle panel of the graphite-gray assembly slides open for a pass-through to the kitchen. To the south, a two-story partition provides a warm, cherry-paneled backdrop for the living area, its abstractly geometrical pattern of openings lighting the stairway beyond. Straight ahead to the east, a high, wide, and orderly grid of glass panels opens onto a two-story screened balcony and expansive views of Charlotte Harbor. The remaining first-floor rooms--a kitchen and two bedrooms--cluster around this atrium-like great room. The master bedroom suite, office, and upper balcony overlook it from the second floor. Floating above is the main roof, an origami-like arrangement of 24 planes with clerestory glazing facing in four directions.

The intricacy of the roof, with its deeply coffered structural system, hints at the challenges this project posed in construction, and the builder readily confirms them. "That house is as complicated a structure as I have ever built" says Hayes, who while running the $15 million company he founded also served as the project manager on this job. Built around a poured-concrete post-and-beam frame, the house also makes liberal use of structural steel, heavy timber, and light-frame construction. As a result, Hayes says, "There is every connection known to man in that building." He credits Holladay and project architect Michael Epstein for the thoroughness and build-ability of their plans, and for their ability to sort out complex details on the jobsite. "They're very precise architects."

That precision shows in the controlled intersections of finish planes and in the orchestration of lighting and materials that give the house subtly different personalities at different times of day. Precision also characterizes the overall plan, which gracefully accommodates a wide variety of uses. Designed as a winter retreat for a three-generation family, the house has the volume to swallow a crowd, but the detail and intimacy to make a small group feel at home. Soon after construction was completed, the owners held a housewarming party that tested the building's capacity. "There were probably 100 people in this house, and it felt comfortable with that," Holladay says. "And it feels comfortable with two people."

RELATED ARTICLE: The builder: negotiating his freedom.

As a group, custom builders seem to enjoy a healthy level of fulfillment in their work. Just don't ask about bidding. It is with no small satisfaction, therefore, that Peter Hayes says, "Most of our work is negotiated." What pleases Hayes is more than just freedom from bidding on jobs he might never build. On negotiated projects he gets involved early, when he has a better chance to influence design decisions and build rapport with his clients. * Hayes typically prepares his first budget when a project is still in schematic design and offers revised preliminary budgets up until working drawings are finalized. "At that juncture," he says, "we'll deliver a guaranteed-maximum-price contract." At the stage when a bidding builder would be first shaking hands with a prospective client, Hayes has already established a basis of trust. * In the equally important builder/architect relationship, Hayes is often even further ahead of the curve. His 20-year association with Seibert Architects, a noted Sarasota firm, directs to his front door the kind of clients other builders willingly chase after. For those hoping to follow in his footsteps, Hayes' advice is simple: "You have to build a reputation. How to get there is pretty clear, it's just a matter of how long it takes you."---B.D.S.