Built Work Images:

Before and After Images:

Golden Beach, Florida 2003-2006

Shimmering sand beaches stretch for miles along the Atlantic Ocean in South Florida. In this winter playground of hotels and condominiums, private beachfront residences are rare. Yet here one homeowner found his personal slice of paradise in a nondescript house in Golden Beach overlooking the sea.

The long narrow lot, 60 by 270 feet, did not have much room for landscaping, although it was desperately needed. Along the south face of the building, we eliminated parking and a proposed covered walkway. Instead, we redirected circulation from the auto court to the front door through a linear garden. A gently ramped travertine path, enveloped in lush plantings, gradually reveals the Atlantic Ocean, a stunning surprise. The door is flanked by salt-tolerant Maling bamboo. A large window next to the entry brings this garden indoors, as gentle shadows of the bamboo dance across the room.

Parallel to the path, a sleek cascading stream flows from the entrance to the auto court. The two-tiered water feature masks the sounds of the busy street and comes alive at night with thousands of tiny fiber-optic lights. Along the house, plantings are layered in various volumes and feature a variety of native and exotic species. On the other side of the path, in a restrictive three-foot-wide planting space at the southernmost edge of the property, we installed a dense buffer of mostly salt-tolerant Florida natives including sabal palms, pigeon plums, silver buttonwoods, and Jamaican caper. Their staggered heights screen the neighboring house, which is less than ten feet away. Bromeliads and orchids grow on tree trunks, adding color to the predominantly green palette.

Beyond the entry, the path descends to the beach, pausing at the travertine pool deck. The generously scaled infinity-edge pool underscores the horizon. Nighttime fiber-optic lighting produces a peaceful glow, out of view of the nesting sea turtles on the beach. We added coconut and bottle palms seaside and planted the dune with native species including agaves, yuccas, sea oats, and dune sunflower.

Light streams into the north side of the house through floor-to-ceiling windows, which balance the proportions of the room and incorporate the ten-foot-wide side yard into the space. In this narrow area we designed a bilevel travertine shelf to display pottery, sculpture, and plants. Behind the shelves are thin, multi-trunked Everglades palms.

Often our best solutions result from working under very tight constraints. On this limited site we juxtaposed elements of water, sound, light, and color while keeping hardscape materials bold and minimal. We endeavored to strike a balance of scale to link the natural and man-made environments.