Photos by Steven Brooke and Barbara Banks
Feature: Out of the Blue
July 2, 2004
Along a sleepy stretch of beachfront homes near Sarasota, on Florida’s Casey
Key, a lone residence tucked behind walls rises in mystery a dozen feet above
the sea. To passersby, there is no indication that this seaside house stands in
the swim of modernism. A host of sharp right angles and four interlocking cubes
of glass connecting the structure’s two halves render this residence a virtual
Mondrian painting in the round.
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Architect Guy Peterson turned a humble beach cottage on Casey Key near Sarasota,
Fla., into a modern dream house without altering the home’s basic
footprint. A
wood deck, fringed by wild sea oats, dune daisies and
ornamental grasses, leads
down to the ocean. (Click images to enlarge)In a monumental overhaul of a modest, single-story 1960s ranch house, distinctive only for its location, Sarasota architect Guy Peterson gave Hadassa and Harvey Morris, a retired psychologist and business consultant, respectively, a dream house that boasts unobstructed views of the water and a 50 percent increase in living space.
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Landscape architect David W. Young took his
cue from the geometric forms of
the house to create a modern garden.
Cambodian pots sit on white
gravel; a row
of bamboo leading to
the front door is planted in black
river rock. (Click images
to enlarge)“The house exceeded our hopes and expectations,” Hadassa says. The Morrises’ basic requirements included a plan that screened the house from the road; an elegant entryway; 10- to 15-foot ceilings instead of the existing 8-footers; a second-floor master suite; and, in place of small windows, expanses of glass that accommodate sweeping views of the Gulf of Mexico.
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A
fountainhead spills water
into the reflecting pool. (Click image to enlarge)Not surprisingly, the
challenges were daunting. Peterson was forbidden to alter the home’s foundation
because it straddled the state’s coastal construction control line. So in
response to that single restraint, he changed everything else. “Had I been given
a clean slate,” he says, “I would have been proud to have come up with this same
house.”
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