Every ocean home is special. And so are our Top 50 Coastal Architects listed here. They possess the unique skills, experience and sensibilities required to design and build magnificent custom homes close to one of the most beautiful (and unforgiving) forces of nature on Earth—the ocean.
Douglas W. Burdge AIA and his team of designers are recognized for their diverse architectural styles, including Spanish Mediterranean, Traditional, “Rustic-Modern” and cutting-edge Contemporary, from Malibu to Sun Valley to Los Cabos, Mexico. MORE >
Award-winning architect Max Strang designs a striking contemporary home in Coconut Grove, just south of Miami, with beautiful views of a private canal and Biscayne Bay. MORE >
MOREHOUSE MACDONALD AND ASSOCIATES
Morehouse MacDonald & Associates (MMA) proves that smaller firms can compete with national firms. This 60 year old architecture and interiors firm has an award winning history of designing custom homes in the Greater Boston, Cape and Islands area of Massachusetts. Recently MMA expanded their impressive coastal and island portfolio to include residences in South Carolina, Florida and the Caribbean. MORE >
NICHOLAEFF ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
Doreve Nicholaeff embraces “bold.” Whether she’s ramping up a home’s geometry with curves or straight lines or reawakening stalwart New England traditions with modern tenets, she abstracts from the past to create the new. MORE >
.jpg)
Architect Richard Landry moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s to be where the action is. The Montreal native drove down from recession-plagued Alberta without a green card or visa. He promptly landed four job offers within a week, so he got his visa and stuck around. “My timing was good; there was a lot of potential out there,” he says. “Then I was on my own at 30 years of age and I thought: Yeah, I can do this.” MORE >
Robert A. Cardello Architects is an award winning, high-end design firm creating beautiful spaces, locally and around the country. We work both residential and commercial projects, with a specialty in fine home design. MORE >
Douglas VanderHorn Architects is a classically-focused architecture firm specializing in residential design. Drawing on an accomplished career spanning three-decades, Douglas VanderHorn creates each new home with inspiration from the rich architectural traditions of the past and seamlessly incorporates innovative building technologies, modern conveniences, and tailor-made features. MORE >
To see a dazzling transformation of wood into exquisite artful form, look no further than this handsome family home perched on a point overlooking Long Island Sound in Riverside, Conn. The classic Shingle Style residence, designed by Charles Hilton in nearby Greenwich, changes simple, straightforward wood into an ethereal showstopper. MORE >
SRW opened its doors in 1981, working on small residential and light commercial projects. Through hard work, determination and a love of our craft, our work has grown to include a portfolio of houses, equestrian centers, golf clubhouses, schools, museums, and libraries.MORE >
Miami-based Brillhart Architecture is borne out of a love for and facility with “making” things. In the natural course of development, tectonics, materiality and the logic of construction have become a primary focus of interest. MORE >
Leading architects Choeff Levy Fischman create a stunning contemporary home on the Venetian Islands in Miami. MORE >
A modernist in his approach to architecture and design, Guy Peterson speaks a language of honesty and simplicity. He calls his work poetic and human, saying that it evokes emotions and comes from the heart. Through light, shadow, color, and indigenous materials, he creates an aesthetic that’s clean, sustainable, and aimed at delight. MORE >
CHRISTOPHER ARCHITECTURE & INTERIORS
Working with a palette of materials and colors appropriate to each space, the designers at Christopher Architecture & Interiors seek to balance the pragmatics of budget and lifestyle with a proportioned and elegant design. MORE >
KONSTANT ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING
Architect Paul Konstant originally created the firm, Konstant Architecture & Planning with the intent to create beautiful structures that are rooted in the value of form and function. MORE >
Rex Nichols Architects has been established for more than 30 years and is dedicated to the design of high quality residential and commercial projects and specializes in waterfront properties. MORE >
Venezuela-born architect Stephanie Halfen moved to Miami in 2009 – and never looked back. Educated at Universidad Símon Bolívar in Caracas, she earned an additional degree from New York’s Parsons School of Design. She’d been teaching in Venezuela and thought she’d teach when she moved to South Florida. But then she dove into Miami’s real estate market, bought some land with her husband and designed a home for them to live in with their three children. MORE>
With four offices on or near the eastern seaboard, Harrison Design creates beautiful Atlantic coastal homes from Maine to Key West. MORE >
De Reus architects work with those who share a passion for original design. Whether it’s a world-class resort in Hawaii or a one-of-a-kind private residence in the Rocky Mountains, the same level of craftsmanship and thought shapes each and every de Reus venture. MORE >
Views are at the heart of every project designed by Hutker Architects. “For me, it’s all about the site,” says Phil Regan, principal in the 32-year-old firm based on Martha’s Vineyard and in Falmouth, Massachusetts. “I try to find inspiration in the place itself.”
Nowhere is that more evident than at The Bridge House on Martha’s Vineyard. The residence takes its name from a transparent great room strategically placed between a master suite on one end and a sleeping space for two teens on the other. MORE>
Patrick Ahearn is one of New England’s most renowned and prolific residential architects. MORE >
POLHEMUS SAVERY DASILVIA ARCHITECTS
Broad flat columns, big overhangs, crisp triangular roof shapes, window sizes ranging from extra small to extra large, fat window muntins, and a flaring copper chimney cap give Sundowner a happy, iconic character of “home” that a child’s drawing might evoke. MORE>
Designing a seaside home that’s beautiful, sustainable, and extremely energy efficient is nothing new for architect Stephanie Horowitz. “Those attributes are standard practice for us. The pairing of design and performance is what we do. Great design is green design,” says Horowitz, managing director of ZeroEnergy Design in Boston. MORE>
For more than 80 years, clients have embraced OBMI as trusted advisors for their tireless dedication and commitment to exceptional, beautiful design. MORE >
It’s a modern riff on a classical theme. In the bucolic setting of the Hamptons, on New York’s Long Island, architect Alexander Gorlin has designed a beach house that invokes Janus – that ancient dual-faced Roman deity – as he deftly responded to a site with panoramic views of both sunrise and sunset. MORE >
Situated on a secluded lot in Quogue and offering views of the bay from its rooftop terrace, this new modern house is composed of a series of stacked rectangular volumes that loosely form an L-shape. MORE >
A particularly persistent myth concerning coastal architecture is the need for huge terraces and many balconies facing the water. MORE >
To Blaze Makoid, an architect based in Bridgehampton, NY, designing a statement home for clients is not a matter of how they live. “It’s how they want to live,” he says. MORE >
“The client basically said: ‘We know what you do – just go ahead and do it,” says Scott Bromley, principal in the New York-based firm of Bromley Caldari Architects. They’d already worked mightily to gain that trust – by designing a main residence, a gym and a pool house in a compound of buildings…MORE >
Out on the east end of Long Island, N.Y., above a challenging patch of land overlooking Little Peconic Creek, stands a modest cedar-shingled Cape Cod cottage in the 18th century style. MORE >
If the mastery of a great ocean home is measured by its sense of anticipation, this exceptional vacation retreat in the coastal enclave of Watch Hill, Rhode Island, succeeds on every level. MORE >
Established in 1998, Martin Architects provides licensed architectural services, interior design, furniture design, House and site evaluating and Master planning. The team offers the skills and experience of a large firm, while providing the personal service, motivation, and responsiveness associated with a boutique practice.
Working on modernist projects to historic, MA specializes in high-end residential, commercial and institutional design. Projects have been undertaken throughout New York State-including the Hamptons and New York City-as well as Connecticut, New Jersey, Baltimore, Costa Rica, Portugal and the Caribbean. MORE >
Peter Pennoyer Architects (PPA) is an award-winning practice in traditional architecture and is widely recognized as a leader in classicism and historic preservation. Based in Manhattan and with an office in Miami, the firm has built a substantial and varied body of work across the United States and abroad for residential, commercial, and institutional commissions often involving historic buildings. MORE >
Architect, Suchi Reddy, founded Reddymade in 2002 with a human-centric approach to design—one that assesses the economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts of her work on both people and the planet. MORE >
Stelle Lomont Rouhani architects strive to create a rewarding design and building experience for each of their clients. MORE >
Robert A.M. Stern Architects is a 300-person firm of architects, interior designers, and supporting staff. Over its five-decade history, the firm has established an international reputation as a leading design firm with wide experience in residential, commercial and institutional work. MORE >
Steven Harris Architects is an award winning design firm with extensive and varied experience in both public and private commissions. MORE >
Out on Madaket Beach on the western end of Nantucket, there’s no shortage of design restrictions, to be sure. But in designing a family’s summer retreat there, architect Andrew Kotchen, a partner in New York’s Workshop/APD, responded deftly to them all. MORE >
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) is noted for elegant and humane design, ranging from modest houses to large academic, civic, cultural, commercial, and corporate buildings. MORE >
Christopher Rose Architects is a small, collaborative design firm focusing on detail, clarity, tradition and innovation. Comprised of a few individuals who have worked together for many years, the firm brings a wide variety of expertise and knowledge to every project. MORE >
Michael G. Imber, Architects is a modern classical design firm based in San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, CA. MORE >
When John Doak—a second-generation Scottish architect freshly minted from the University of Glasgow—arrived on Grand Cayman in 1979, he found a blank canvas.
Sure, there were fishing cabins, shotgun shacks, and the occasional 1920s Sears, Roebuck & Co. kit house, termite ridden and destined for the dustbin. But the island had no formal, signature architecture, no Georgian, Colonial, or Palladian-inspired residential work like on Jamaica, Antigua, and other Caribbean islands. MORE >
Since 1998, R.A Shaw Designs has mastered the art of building dreams and bringing imaginations to life. Based in Turks and Caicos, the firm specializes in the design and craft of luxury residences that capture the essence of open tropical living. MORE >
When renowned architect Jim Cutler is at his best, he responds to two givens for any residential design: environmental circumstance and how his clients live. At Ohana House, on the north coast of Hawaii’s Big Island, he has interpreted both with exquisite attention to detail. MORE >
Silberstein Architecture was founded by Jeffrey Silberstein, AIA in 1989 and specializes in modern residential architecture. MORE >
As if the winds at Slaughterhouse Beach on Maui’s dramatic northwest coastline aren’t frisky enough already, renowned architect Tom Kundig has turbocharged them in his design for a spectacular home overlooking this legendary surfing spot. MORE >
Throughout the design and construction process, hughesumbanhowar Architects continuously exchanges views and opinions with their clients regarding strategic options, and we continually refocus our efforts on making the design and construction process through which each client must navigate as intuitive, seamless, and stress-free as possible. MORE>
Allan Greenberg Architect, LLC was established in 1972 and has offices in New York, New York and Alexandria, Virginia. The firm has an international reputation for combining contemporary construction techniques with the best architectural traditions to create solutions that are both timeless and technologically progressive. MORE >
Two new towers rising above legendary Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman Island are striking symbols of a new approach to architecture in the western Caribbean.
They’re starkly modern in a destination that’s more tradition-bound in its resort design. They soar 10 stories high – taller than any building on the island – with sweeping ocean vistas. And they’re built to withstand 150 mph winds, exceeding hurricane standards for Dade County, Fla. MORE>
At a slim 33 feet wide by 105 feet long, the site in the Strand Section of Manhattan Beach in Southern California posed a dilemma: how could someone possibly build an 8,000-square-foot home there for an active family of five, including three teenagers? MORE>
Bates Masi + Architects LLC, is a full-service architectural firm with roots in New York City and the East End of Long Island that responds to each project with extensive research in related architectural fields, material, craft and environment for unique solutions as varied as the individuals or groups for whom they are designed. MORE>