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Thomas P. Catalano Creates the Ultimate Nantucket Home

Sound Structure: Hints of Colonial Revival style are present throughout the home

A couple razes a Nantucket Sound house and builds a new one, creating a home that celebrates the island’s views and simple lifestyle. By Anna Kasabian

When the owners of this three-acre site on Nantucket Sound decided to take down the original home here and build anew, they looked to Boston architect Thomas P. Catalano to create the ultimate seaside escape. The client’s goal was an uncomplicated one: to create a home that takes full advantage of the stunning views and ultimately comes together in a style that blends grand architectural moments with comfortable, casual space. It was to be a home that would serve as a summer retreat for the businessman, his wife, and two daughters and be a place that could accommodate large gatherings.

With a sweeping, direct southern exposure on the Sound and expansive grounds, Catalano succeeded in building a signature Shingle-style home that looks as though it’s been here for generations. Located at the end of a long drive, bordered by magnificent rhododendrons, it presents at the very end as a traditional island home that honors the architectural legacy of the island. The double-height windowed entry that frames sea and sky fulfills the owners’ desire for a grand, catch-your-breath space.

As Catalano explains, “This is a living hall, a social space with furniture meant to recall the entries you would find in original Shingle-style homes.”

The entry also serves as the axis from which all other rooms branch east and west. One wing houses the owners’ office suite; the other is devoted to the dining and living rooms and the open kitchen, breakfast, and family room.

The second floor houses the master bedroom and bath, and the third floor is devoted to the girls’ bedrooms, which are separated by a shared sitting room. The lower level bears an entertainment room with a bar, billiard room, and bowling alley. A guest suite above the garage has a private staircase leading to the pool house and patio below. The unique layout allows all rooms to take full advantage of the light and views.

“I would term this a lightened-up version Colonial Revival,” Catalano says. “Wherever possible, we implemented details of the period.”

Interior design by Boston’s Bierly Drake dovetailed perfectly with Catalano’s work in catching the spirit of casual elegance. Supporting design details include white oak floors stained chocolate, bathroom floors and walls of mosaic marble, and kitchen countertops of non-fussy slate.

Of the home’s neutral palette, Catalano says, “[It] allows the millwork detailing to shine through.”

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Alabama’s Turquoise Place

A Crown Jewel: The Turquoise Place

Turquoise Place resort is an architectural delight on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. By Regina Cole

Visitors to Alabama’s Gulf Coast head straight for Route 182 to drive along the chain of slender barrier islands that form the sheltering arms of Mobile Bay. Azure waters lap the sugar-white sands of endless beaches, while bayous, coves, lakes, and lagoons border the north side of the two-lane highway. Resorts, beachside cottages, shrimp shacks, and bathing suit emporiums abound in the time-honored traditions of sun- and sand-kissed communities everywhere. Rubberneckers come to a screeching halt when they approach a pair of 23- and 30-story turquoise glass towers—aptly named Turquoise Place—rising in undulating curves.

“People often stop in to inquire about the building and ask for a tour,” says Eva Faircloth of Spectrum Resorts, the company that operates this and several other area resorts. “Most neighboring complexes are boxy and angular, but…Turquoise Place flows, mimicking the waves in the Gulf of Mexico.”

“The developers wanted to call it Turquoise Place to pay homage to the beautiful colors of the water,” says Forrest Daniell, principal architect of the eponymous Daphne, Alabama-based-firm responsible for the striking design. “Turquoise is a notoriously difficult color to work with; we found guidance in a nautilus shell.”

Daniell describes how this beautiful seashell combines the assertive color with shades of beige, dark red, and silver. “During the day, the two towers are white concrete and turquoise glass,” Daniell continues. “Nighttime lighting reveals red and beige patterns, creating an organic, flowing presence.”

Highrises close to a road usually make for an unpleasant tunnel effect; Daniell mitigated that with three-story parking garages that softly curve like the main buildings. “Parking garages are not usually pleasant spaces, so we designed these in the shape of a doughnut, with a four-story waterfall in the center,” he explains. “[They are] not rectilinear; they have light and the sound of water.”

The curves of the two buildings promote stellar views. The water that makes the parking garages so appealing repeats in three outdoor pools, two indoor pools, a lazy river, and large hot tubs on each balcony. Swimming pools incorporate underwater speakers, and one features a Tiki bar. Furnishings in all units include monogrammed sinks, Wolf gas ranges, Sub-Zero refrigerators, 55-inch flat-screen TVs, fireplaces, and fully equipped outdoor kitchens.

Turquoise Place opened to an economic slump in 2009, but a resident describes how it lifted local spirits. “This is the crown jewel of Orange Beach.”

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A Martha’s Vineyard That is True to Tradition

One family’s Martha’s Vineyard vacation home manages to honor the island’s traditions while standing apart from the crowd.

“This is so not your typical Martha’s Vineyard house,” says interior designer Robin Pelissier of the 14,000-square-foot island home. Her company, Robin’s Nest, creates extraordinary interiors, and this home’s architect and its owner agree that this home is just that. What most sets apart the contemporary Shingle-style house designed by Charles Rolando, principal architect at Domus, is its exuberance.

The Vineyard look features gray shingles with white trim, but this family summer home displays a penchant for color, mixed materials, and a non-linear approach. A wide, curvaceous stone entry encompasses vast windows, a great oak door, arched lights reminiscent of medieval castles, and a verandah. That entry is set into the L of the house marked with dormers and Palladian windows.

“I love curves,” says Rolando. “The homeowners love stone. Their dream also included soaring spaces, walls of windows, and coastal views.” To maximize those requirements, the most challenging aspect of the architect’s work was the house’s situation on its small, somewhat challenging lot.

“Between the wetlands and the flood plain, there was little room to maneuver,” Rolando says. “I tell my clients that I will drive them nuts with site analysis; I’m sure I did in this case. We reoriented the house and built closer to the height restriction and setbacks, resulting in a design where every room, except for the home theater, has a water view.”

The exterior curves repeat in a great circular staircase that sweeps up all three floors, connecting the eight bedrooms, 13 baths, theater, wine cellar, gentleman’s club room, and gym, which includes a hidden sauna. A fieldstone fireplace and chimney dominate the soaring two-story living room. While its front façade displays a modest one-and-a-half stories, the house’s rear elevation, all-glass walls, reveals its size.

“The interior features a lot of wood, iron, and stone,” says Pelissier. “Rich, saturated colors in fabrics and furnishings balance that masculine spirit. The homeowner loves color.” Pelissier points to the purple leather headboard in the master bedroom as an example. “[She] has great jewelry; we used that aesthetic for the interior design.”

Pelissier calls the lighting fixtures and hardware “the jewelry of the house, giving it sparkle and completing the décor the way a…necklace adds the finishing touch to a great outfit.”

But the kitchen is the heart of the home. “With four children, it’s where everything happens, so it was located in the center, with rooms radiating outward,” says Rolando.

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A Cape Cod Home is a Stunning Combination of Function and Form

Doreve Nicholaeff, the Johannesburg-born architect known for marrying linear modernism to voluptuous curves, worked her magic with a 7,000-square-foot Cape Cod home and its guest house. On a prominent point at the entrance of a sheltered bay on Nantucket Sound, the house is expansive and supremely functional. Upon first glance, however, it is all about dramatic good looks, inside and out.

The Cape house exterior is accompanied by an infinity pool

“We wanted to make the most of the incredible views,” says Nicholaeff. “From every room, you look out at beauty, whether it is the Bay or the Sound. The prime location, however, made it important for us to consider how the house would look to boats coming into the harbor.”

Returning sailors see symmetrical shingled wings converging on a curved façade largely composed of windows; at night, the house shines across the water like a lighthouse.
As gracefully integrated a part of the landscape as it now appears, this home was not easy to build.

“As it’s in a flood plain, no mechanical systems could be located where they usually are: in the basement,” Nicholaeff says. “Instead, they’re invisible, but accessible, in one part of the first floor. Below the ground-floor level we put breakaway panels that open for flood water if there’s a 100-year storm.”

The proximity of a notoriously stormy stretch of sea wasn’t the only building obstacle: Nicholaeff spent six months acquiring the variances and permissions that local boards and commissions require to grant building permits in such environmentally sensitive areas. Now, that’s a distant memory.

While the exterior nods to local building tradition with cedar shakes, traditional porch railings, and white trim, the interior is decidedly modern. The large kitchen is softened with pale flooring and cabinetry. Like every other space in the house, the kitchen orients toward the outdoors: Working at the granite-topped island is to gaze at a glorious view.

“My client wanted very clean lines, so we used no crown moldings,” Nicholaeff explains. “The rooms are all painted the same warm white, with mahogany doors and windows. ”

The open layout flows around a circular central staircase that recalls a chambered nautilus or Federal architecture. While beautiful, it also knits together far-flung rooms with curves of varying arcs along their water sides. The central spiral appears to hold the house’s curvaceous exterior close and safe.

“While the house has traditional and modern elements,” says Nicholaeff, “what makes it work is the rigorous geometry that responds to the contours of the land.”

Dennis Duffy Brings Boston Design to Maine

A Manhattan business duo teams up with a Boston design star to create their dream summer cottage on the Maine coast.

A notable recent project by Boston design star Dennis Duffy is a Maine vacation house that’s stylish and rich with personality, yet sleek and uncluttered at the same time.

“The owners worked with designers in their New York condo and Connecticut country house, but here, they wanted someone from New England who understands the region’s history and culture,” Duffy says. “They have a modern aesthetic, which I am known for.”

The Duffy Design Group is a four-time winner of “Best of Boston for Interior Design” and the 2009 IIDA New England winner. The owners of the “cottage” are high-powered and high-profile New York businessmen. Rigorous research and lengthy interviews connected Boston and New York.

“Before I began, they showed me their Manhattan condo so I could see their taste…,” Duffy explains, adding, “…once we decided to work together, they gave me carte blanche—as long as nothing competed with the view.”

The area has attracted affluent summer visitors for over 150 years. Distinguished by spectacular natural beauty and a down-to-earth culture, coastal Maine is accessible, but light years from Manhattan. From their first foray into the Pine Tree State, this couple felt at home. They rented a succession of summer places until they found a four-bedroom Shingle-style house built in 1901, poised on the rocky shore and featuring spectacular views of Boon Island, the Cape Neddick Lighthouse, Eastern Point, and the open ocean.

Within the historic exterior, Duffy opened and connected rooms on the first floor and designed luxurious new bathrooms, including a stunning entryway powder room. The entryway, formerly a series of cramped rooms, now opens into a light-filled living space dominated by a sculpture of a Duffy-designed staircase. Panels of seeded glass float upward within a teak frame. Stainless-steel uprights make it modern; tension cable nods to the nautical setting.

Cabinetmaker Mike Fernald of nearby Cape Neddick executed the mouldings, built-ins, vanities, cabinets, and the kitchen, designed to look original to the 1901 house. Duffy took his cues from the adjacent butler’s pantry, which remained intact at the homeowners’ insistence. He created space within the historic footprint when a warren of unused attic rooms and closets became a spacious rec-and-media room.

Personality abounds: a French cast iron industrial scale is base to a console table and, on the top floor, old wooden tennis racquets circle a wall like a great mandala.

Living on the Edge: Inspiring Cliff-Top Houses

While all ocean front homes are stunning, there is something about having your home perched on a cliff high over the ocean that takes ocean front living to a whole other another dimension of breathtaking. Homes on a cliff tend to capture a different feeling then living at sea level. Some describe it as “other worldly.” While you might not have the ocean right out your door, these houses offer a view that places you at the edge of the world and in the heavens all at the same time. -L.G.

Contempory and Clifftop in Thailand– This Thailand residence combines cliff side living with ultra modern design– the result? A truly impressive property for anyone who appreciates contemporary architecture, deep green forest, stone cliffs, deep blue water and being suspended about one hundred feet over it.

Cliffside Cabin in Chili– While the style of this Chilean Vacation Home may be simple and laid-back, it is certainly as impressive as any ocean front estate as it hovers on the edge of a steep and rocky cliff far above the waves below. Despite its splendor, this quaint cabin would not be a good choice for the faint of heart– it boasts a spacious railing free deck that puts only the refreshing ocean air between you and the rocks that lie a vertigo-inducing distance below.

Want a house on a Cliff to call your own?– These multi-million dollar stunners might fit the bill.

A True Belvedere– This 6 bedroom, 5 full bath, and 3 half-bath estate sits on the westernmost side of the exclusive Belvedere Island of San Francisco Bay. The homes large windows capture views over the sharp drop and beyond to Sausalito, the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco skyline. Besides the $22 million asked for this elite property, if you can find an extra $12 million you can buy the parcel of sea-level property that sits below the cliff–landing you an extra acre in addition to your own boathouse and pier. Sotheby’s Realty, $22 Million.

Luxury in Laguna Beach– If $22 million is outside your budge, this Laguna Beach property offers three private terraces, ultimate privacy, modern design, a white sand beach, Pacific Ocean views and the excitement of living on the edge of a cliff—all for just under $10 million. With its large glass windows and contemporary, curved shape, the design of the house takes every advantage to capitalize on its magnificent views. In addition to four luxurious bedrooms each with their own private bath, there is also a game room, meditation area, Gaggenau gourmet kitchen and long, steep steps leading to a white-sand beach. Coldwell Banker, $10 Million.

Bringing Vintage Coastal Style Into Your Bedroom

Bringing vintage coastal style into your bedroom is a way to either dress it up or down. It’s a salute to the coast and will bring a traditional or antiqued feel to your contemporary bedroom.

To achieve all this you don’t have to be a world renounced interior designer either. Pulling colors and images directly from the ocean, combined with bright whites, emphasized with natural woods, navy strips, and a few antiqued accessories is basically the gist of it. This post will help you get some great ideas for each area of your bedroom from the choice of linens to your bedroom floor finish.

The Bed

In any bedroom the style and design of the bed can really set the stage for the entire look and feel of the room. It may seem too easy but the trick is to keep your linens crisp and white and use pillows or a foot blanket as accent pieces. Going for navy strips or just a plain navy print will help create a coastal feel.

If you own a sailboat or know someone who does, get a hold of a sail and get custom slipcovers bed skirts constructed. This will make a great nautical statement when paired with navy stripes and it also brings a piece of a ship into the room!

Choosing the right type of bed frame and headboard also plays a major part in the look of the bed. Pairing traditional metal bed frames or antique garden gates as a headboard with antique side tables looks great in these guest rooms.

When working with classic coastal color schemes in the room such as blues, sea grass green, and yellows there is no need to be overly nautical. For a simple look, try an antiqued solid wood bed frame with posts paired with traditional coastal colors to achieve the desired feeling.

Floors, Walls and Ceilings

Wood, wood, and wood! Aging your home and adding a “ship like” and vintage feel is achieved with wood and is probably the most essential part of any nautical theme. There are a few choices for finishing the floor but if you can custom order wide planks it will really bring a vintage feel. To age and add extra history to your floors, get them professionally distressed with an antique finish.

Bright white wood paneling is perfect for a coastal feel on the walls. Another idea is to leave intricate framing exposed to play with the early American architecture design. A unique design which would definitely add extra character to your bedroom is using wood exterior shingles on one wall to make the space appear as though it was an addition to the original home. Notice the wood detailing on the ceiling in this picture, as it also adds a wonderful feel to the room, almost as if you are down on the second floor of a ship.

One of our favorite details in many vintage coastal homes is their use of exposed beams. In modern homes you can get these types of beams installed and they do not have to be functional in the framing of your home. It would be a small renovation which would make a big impact! Make sure to shop around for your beams. Often historic properties are taken apart piece by piece and the pieces of old wood and large beams are auctioned for sale.

Accessories

Weathered wooden pieces will enhance the rustic theme in any room. If you love antique shops, shopping for bedroom accessories is where your trained eye will come in handy. Try adding a large weathered pine or cedar chest to the end of your bed or even a large beach wood tree trunk as a coat rack. A stack of antique suitcases adds extra storage to the bedroom and acts as a memento of the spirit of travel that has always drawn people to the coast.

If you happen to come across a great weathered wooden bowl use it in your bedroom. Fill the bowl with shells, pieces of beach glass or any other type of keepsake from the sea then place a few small candles on top. This elegant coastal piece is not only beautiful but is fun to consistently add to.

This guest post was brought to you by PartSelect.com, your complete online resource for DIY appliance repair!

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Coastal Living

Country Living

OceanFront Home featured in Architectual Digest heads to Auction Block

Down from its original asking price of $45 Million, The Razor’s starting auction price of $16 Million represents the luxury oceanfront realty deal of a lifetime.

For those who appreciate modern architecture, pure opulence and unparalleled Ocean Views, opportunity is calling in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla. “The Razor” sits hollowed into a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. From its perch above Black’s Beach, The Razor boasts majestic views of the Pacific and the lush Pine Mountains of California’s Torrey Pines State Reserve.

After the original owner was faced with financial difficulties the Razor was put under the control of a court-appointed trustee. After remaining on the market for three years The Razor is going be sold by verbal auction on September 28 at noon PDT at the premises. The auction presents a rare, but exclusive opportunity for discerning home buyers. The auction price will be exclusively available to qualified bidders and bids must be in US Cash. In order to qualify to attend bidders must wire US $500,000 to the trustee’s account by 5pm PDT on Tuesday, September 21, 2011 and submit proof of ability to close by November 15, 2011 to the Trustee.

The house was built by architect Wallace Cunningham who was given a free rein as well as an unrestricted budget by the original owner. Over 8 years Cunningham commissioned a glass oasis worthy of the Rolls Royce of Ocean views—and with a building cost of $34 million to prove it. With the mere cost of building The Razor reaching $34 million alone, the minimum bid of $16 million required to purchase the Razor in its upcoming auction is essentially a clearance rack price for a house of this caliber. “It’s a steal,” says listing agent Bob Hurwitz to AOL Real Estate, “It shows what you can buy right now in the market on the high end.” -Lindsay Gabrielski