Set majestically in the seaport, The St. Regis Residences, Boston, is one of the city’s most luxurious developments. Designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, the towering glass structure, which opened in 2023 and houses 114 condos on 22 floors, looks like a boat afloat with sails fully unfurled in the wind.

With units starting at $1.85 million, the development offers everything residents desire: a health club, a lounge and library, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a business center, a spa. And a model unit by Boston-based Eric Roseff Designs that embraces and elevates the architecture’s aesthetics and showcases the spectacular views center stage.

“Most model units are neutral and vanilla white,” says Roseff. “I wanted people who see it to feel like it’s someone’s home done thoughtfully over time. I’ve added a lot of personalized pieces to make it cross the finish line.”

The resident he envisioned, well-traveled and sophisticated, enjoys entertaining, collecting art and dining out. “I thought of the owner as a couple or a single person who had left a larger home in the suburbs and really embraced city living,” Roseff says. “That’s why the dining area is small, and there’s only one TV.”

Although the developers gave him carte blanche, there were inherent restrictions. Because of the building’s shape, every unit has a different, unconventional configuration.

“With many angles, simply lining a piece of furniture up along a wall creates a challenge,” he says of the 2,589-square-foot unit that has three bedrooms and 3.5 baths. “It took a lot of custom engineering to design everything, including custom window shades and draperies. And because this is a model unit, I couldn’t add built-ins or change any major components in the kitchen or baths.”

To accentuate the unit’s sharp angles, Roseff selected furnishings that are soft and sculptural and upholstered them in neutral fabrics so they don’t distract from the views.

“The visual interest comes from texture and shape, not color,” he says, adding that the ceilings are mirror-like Venetian plaster, a reflective treatment that subtly merges indoor and outdoor spaces. “The color comes from the artwork and curated accessories, including pillows and glass vases. When you walk in, your eye goes where it should—straight to the outside scenery.”

Roseff boldly throws his first curve in the entry, where a large circular artwork by Shay Kun dominates. It’s a preview of the main living space, which is defined by an irregularly shaped custom rug, designed by Roseff, that resembles ocean waves. The room is appointed with a pair of 1970s Vladimir Kagan sofas that look as though they want to embrace each other and a pair of similar- vintage chairs whose wing-like arms conjure images of seagulls in flight. The center coffee/cocktail table is equally dynamic: Its two pieces pull apart, creating separate servers as needed.

Next to this grouping, Roseff created a conversational setting by pairing two 1970s swivel chairs, upholstered in velvet, and a swiveling mushroom ottoman from the same time period.

“A majority of the upholstery throughout the unit is solid-color fabric instead of patterned,” he says. “The fabrics are textural, and some of them, such as that on the swivel chairs, have a sheen that looks different in different light as you walk around them.”

The curvaceous theme continues in the adjoining dining area, where four round-back chairs and a custom dining banquette cozy up to an oval-shaped Italian marble table, another vintage piece. The wall, papered in the same ombre silver silk and metallic leaf mural that runs from the foyer to the windows, shimmers in the glow of the globes of a pair of floor lamps.

Roseff reserves deeper colors for the more private spaces. In the den, for instance, dark-teal drapes, offset by a virtually invisible Lucite desk in the window, create a cozy setting. The guest room pays homage to the water: Its deep blue painted walls match the drapes, creating a cocoon complete with a daybed that overlooks the seaport.

Artwork that looks like a changing, curated collection ties everything together. “I chose many pieces that people maybe haven’t seen before,” Roseff says, adding that the work over the bed in the primary suite is by Damien Hirst. “Or artists people may not be familiar with.”

(He counts himself in the latter category: He created the eight circular paintings that line the hallway.)

From the circular coin-painting in the kitchen and the round portraits in the hallway to the sphere-like globes of the ceiling fixture in the primary bedroom, every aspect of the unit becomes one great big design loop that amplifies the illusion of a place that’s well loved and well lived in.

“Several people who have toured the unit have asked who lives here,” Roseff says. “That’s the greatest compliment.”

It was the views of Long Island Sound that seduced them.

The New York City couple had come to Larchmont, New York, looking for a place to rent that was an easy commute to their Manhattan jobs. Their plan was to test the waters to see whether they liked the community enough to buy. But the minute they stepped through the front door of the 1910 Spanish Colonial house, they knew that it would be the perfect place to raise their two young sons.

“When we saw the sea, it was clear that this was a special property,” says the husband.

“The view,” the wife adds, “is expansive.”

Because they had never owned a house before, they really didn’t know what they were getting into. But it didn’t matter because they were smitten. They moved in immediately and hired Charles Hilton Architects, which is based in Greenwich, Connecticut, to restore, renovate, and reshape the house to suit their lifestyle.

The house, which is in a historic district, did, indeed, need work. The floors sagged, the walls lacked insulation, and demolition revealed unanticipated water damage and rot. The Spanish-tile roof, the exterior stucco façade, and all the windows, doors, millwork, and trim had to be replaced as did the outdated mechanicals, the electrical system, and the decades-old kitchen and baths.

What’s more, the unstable sunroom was demolished and reconstructed, and the two original first-floor bay windows and two second-floor bay windows, which were later additions, were replaced with larger windows to bring the light—-and the view of the Sound that so enchanted the owners—into the family room, living room, primary bedroom suite, and boys’ study. 

“We took the lead from the house’s century-old architecture and enhanced it,” says architect Chuck Hilton, adding that the stucco façade and wood trim were replaced with more durable PVC that looks like the real thing. “At the same time, we took the opportunity to rework the circulation of the floor plans for the first and second floors to be more efficient and better meet the owners’ needs.”

To that end, the kitchen, pantry, and mudroom were reconfigured, and the dining room was converted into a family room. Dining now takes place in what was the old study.

Perhaps the most significant alteration was the removal of a chimney and its three fireplaces, creating a different configuration in the core of the house that allowed for a more generous closet and bath in the primary suite and a larger playroom for the boys. Original details, including the exposed ceiling beams in the living room, entry hall, and family room, were preserved and paired with new built-in cabinetry and a new fireplace surround whose design reflects the style of the house.

“We kept asking ourselves what the house wanted to be,” says Charles Hilton Architects project manager Jason Wyman. “The house reflects the personality of the owners.”

That personality—colorful, exuberant and multicultural—is echoed in the décor by Jenny Wolfe Interiors of New York City.

“We didn’t want a traditional or modern style,” the wife says, adding that they selected a palette of “pleasing watery blues and greens that transition from room to room. We wanted everything to be transitional and to pay homage to our heritage—I’m from India, and my husband is from Spain.”

It is the extensive use of wallpaper, by request of the homeowners, that defines the interior spaces. Enormous white cranes wing their way across the dining room, cheetahs leap playfully around the formal powder room, and a map of the world in the boys’ bedroom opens their eager eyes to endless possibilities.

One of the wife’s favorite spaces, an office in the sitting area of the primary suite, features a mural of a scene from her native India.

“It’s a work of art in and of itself,” the husband says.

The new-old house is designed to last for generations, and the couple feels so at home that they cannot imagine living anywhere else.

“We’re a five-minute walk from the park,” the husband says. “We love the community.”

And, the wife adds, “every room is so special that I can’t choose a favorite—I love them all.”

Using nature as her guide, designer Monica Slodarz created interiors for a waterfront condo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that drink in the views, breathe in the gentle ocean breezes, and reflect the blue-hued beauty of the softly lapping ocean waves.

The condo, for a family with three young and vivacious children, is meant to be a lively yet tranquil retreat as well as a repository for a substantial collection of colorful and edgy contemporary art. To give the art top billing, Slodarz, the principal of Miami-based The Art of Design, created a neutral backdrop that showcases the works as if they are on display in an avant-garde gallery.

“Our sources of inspiration were deeply rooted in the coastal surroundings and the desire to create a haven of serenity and understated luxury,” Slodarz says. “The fluidity of the ocean influenced the use of organic shapes and textures in the home, such as the gently curved furniture, seashell-inspired décor, and driftwood accents.”

The subtle color palette—whites, creams, and soft greys—was selected to amplify and reflect the natural light, making the scenery center stage.

“In a beachfront setting, where sunlight is abundant, these colors make the interior spaces feel brighter, more welcoming, and reduce the need for artificial light during daylight hours,” she says. “The palette also creates a sense of openness that complements the wide, unobstructed vistas of the sea and sky.”

She adds that the “interior becomes a canvas that accentuates, rather than competes with, the outdoor views.”

Those views led Slodarz to overlay a palette of soft blues, sandy neutrals, and hints of seafoam green to the spaces. “The azure waters and the rhythm of the waves served as a constant muse,” she says. “The palette reflects and complements the beauty of the surroundings.”

The materials, too, were selected to accentuate the indoor-outdoor flow of the spaces, creating what Slodarz calls the look and feel of “timeless elegance.” She used a variety of natural materials, including stone, to bring pattern, texture and a sense of luxurious ease to the spaces. The floors, cabinetry, and furniture are made of warm-toned woods, including oak and teak; the draperies, upholstery, and bedding are linen and cotton; and wicker and rattan pieces add a touch of coastal charm.  

The organic nature of the décor is aptly illustrated in the main living space, where a wall of windows highlights a curvaceous sofa whose bulbous white boucle upholstery is as luscious as a marshmallow. Its sultry shape is echoed in the circular coffee table, whose wedged pie-like leaves are clad in natural rattan, another nod to nature. The opposite wall is dominated by two large artworks that bring pops of color to the serene setting.

In the dining room, the curves continue. The dining table, topped by a slab of white marble that matches that of the adjoining kitchen island, is circular. The chairs, upholstered in the same white boucle as the living room sofa, have back rests that look like soft clouds of cotton. The scene is illuminated by a Calder-style mobile pendant, a dynamic piece that sways slightly to catch the eye.

The kitchen, elegant and efficient, is a study in white that’s punctuated by subtle accents of black in the sleek bar stools and the veins of the marble.

The most challenging part of the project, Slodarz says, was “finding the right balance between providing privacy, blocking the view of an old building next door to the south of the apartment, and maximizing the natural light coming from the exterior wall that was all glass. This required thoughtful spatial planning, the strategic placement of custom built-in furniture, and the use of innovative shading solutions that could be adjusted according to the time of day and privacy requirements.”

“Designing, for me, is an emotional process,” says Rosemary Hallgarten. “It’s all about feeling.”

That’s a very astute comment considering that the British-born designer’s rugs and textiles are so tactile and textural that you can’t help but reach out and touch them, even if you view them only in photographs in the pages of a magazine.

Hallgarten, who established her eponymous company a little over two decades ago, creates two collections each year. Her to-the-trade designs are sold in showrooms around the country.

Her newest launch, which she christened Aurora after the Roman goddess of the dawn, in comfort-cocoon hues of chocolate, cognac, blue-gray, and olive-green, draws its inspiration from summer’s waning light, the Baroque era, and the cathedral-like domed ceilings that held her eye during a recent trip to Puglia in Italy’s high-heeled boot.

“I always like to combine the ancient with the new,” she says, adding that Aurora “bumps up the sense of texture, warmth, and coziness.”

When you see Aurora, which Hallgarten says “speaks to a sense of Italy and its rich decorative history,” you can’t help but feel transported to the ancient towns of Puglia, where sunlight plays hide-and-seek in the arch of every wall and the curve of every doorway.

Hallgarten’s Ombre Glacier rug, whose organic pattern appears to cascade over its wool base, features what she calls a “shimmer” of gold highlighting the high-pile silk that mimics the light. The contrast of flat wool and high-pile silk in the Glacier series becomes a warm embrace that invites you to wrap yourself in luxury. “That’s the feeling I want to create—they are soft and comfortable enough to wear,” she says.Her Ombre Arch rugs, designed to complement curved furniture, are defined by a subtle, oh-so-soft-to-the-touch arch pattern.

Some of Hallgarten’s designs, such as Shiitake, skillfully create textural landscapes through the gradation of a single solid color.

When she’s designing, Hallgarten always starts with contrasting textures and materials—undyed alpaca fibers, sheep shearling, and brushed baby alpaca fibers—and builds her big ideas upon “little thoughts.” She makes sketches, and then produces samples until “everything comes together,” a process she likens to blending all the ingredients together much as a pastry chef does when baking a complex cake.

Long before sustainability was de rigueur in the fashion and design worlds, Hallgarten embraced it, commissioning craftspeople from Peru, Nepal, Brazil, and Turkey to bring her creations to life.

“When I started my company in 2001, I wasn’t thinking about sustainability per se,” she says. “I wanted to do something that no one else was doing. I fell in love with Peru and its history and its rich traditions. I saw it as a challenge to take the skills of these craftspeople, who were making traditional-style products for tourists, and translate their skills and designs to create a wider audience to keep them working.”

Feeling the hand of the artisan at work is what makes Hallgarten’s designs so special. It is, she says, “the difference between an oil or acrylic painting and a print—the print doesn’t have soul.”

In addition to supporting indigenous cultures, Hallgarten uses sustainable materials, including Peruvian alpaca fibers (the fleece has many colors), Tibetan wool (Himalayan sheep grow one of the more luxurious wools in the world), Tibetan cactus, nettles, and hemp (featured in her Botanical Collection), and Brazilian cotton, wool, rustic silk, banana, leather, jute, and sisal (no Amazon rainforests were harmed).

Hallgarten is a second-generation craftsperson. Her mother, Gloria Finn, turned the paintings of Milton Avery, Theodoros Stamos, Hans Mueller, and Anni Albers into floor coverings.

Early in her career, Hallgarten focused on jewelry; her first rugs, Falling Leaf, were inspired by her original creations. “Jewelry and rugs and textiles all have texture,” she says. “I’ve always loved chain mail, and it led me to jewelry. But I wanted to design something softer and to play with color.”Hallgarten, who is based in Connecticut, keeps in close contact with the artisans in her fold, visiting them often; she’s worked with many of them for decades.

“Everything I do comes from passion,” she says, adding that she creates designs that “are what I want in my own home. I feel lucky that I can keep on doing it.”

rosemaryhallgarten.com

During his travels in Mexico, Los Angeles architect Steve Straughan couldn’t help but fall in love with the sleepy little surfing village of Troncones, which is some 20 miles north of the resort city of Zihuatanejo. He doesn’t have a surfboard, mind you, but he figured “this little piece of heaven,” which has a population that barely tops 500, would be a good place to entertain family and friends who do like to ride the waves.

His beachside vacation condo, one of 35 in the Pacific Coast development Punta Majahua, was still under construction when he acquired it, which allowed him to customize the interior to suit his lifestyle and his sizable collection of contemporary Mexican artworks. “I wanted to make it mine,” he says. “I wanted the interiors to look different from those of the other units.”

The half-dozen low-rise buildings in the development, which includes a communal swimming/lap pool and a paddleboard court, attracted his attention because they are chic beach creatures—undulating, organic sculptures whose gentle curves mimic the waves of the water they front.

With the help of Los Angeles interior designer Jen Dallas, Straughan created a more contemporary space by reconfiguring the condo’s layout, enlarging the kitchen and opening up the rooms to create a central living and dining area that melds into the outdoor living room, which is appointed with a plunge pool and a shower. “The three spaces feel good as one space, but each is comfortable and unique,” Straughan says. “The art and furniture connect them, and a large sliding-door system brings the outdoors in. In Mexico, the weather’s beautiful, so I want to spend as much time outside as possible.”

To merge the indoor and outdoor spaces, Dallas says, “we played off the Mexican seaside, which is grey and rustic, and brought in the idea of grasses, pebbles, rocks, bamboo, blue skies, and sunsets through textures and colors.”

They began with the interior finishes, selecting troweled-smooth white plaster for the main walls and grey plaster in the two bedrooms to create a rich yet neutral background for Straughan’s art, much of which is displayed on the curved wall of the entry hall. The floors, Mexican limestone, “have the look and gritty feel of Troncones beach sand,” Straughan says. Instead of built-in furniture, which the other units have, Straughan and Dallas created custom designs that were executed by Mexican artisans. “There’s not a lot of furniture, but each piece is significant and adds value to what we were creating,” Dallas says.

The interior design scheme was inspired by a whimsical floor lamp whose base is the three-pronged branch of an olive tree and whose top is crowned by a skirt of raffia. The bamboo pendant that hangs over the dining table, which Straughan says is “magical” when illuminated, complements the lamp. Their forms echo those of the vine-entwined metal and bamboo trellises at the community’s swimming pool and are a nod to the bamboo overhang of the condo’s outdoor room.

The round dining table, which like many of the furnishings is made of local parota wood, is a foil for the ceiling fan in the adjoining guest bedroom, which is separated from the main spaces by elegantly casual sliding shutter-like slatted doors made of parota wood. Its chairs are upholstered in an orange-hued performance fabric that adds a casual air to their formality. “They are made,” Straughan says, “for sitting in your bathing suit.”

In the primary bedroom suite, a vintage French-style chair and a colorful portrait, taken from Straughan’s Los Angeles house, set the stage for the voluminous linen-cotton draperies, in a terra-cotta color, that partition the bed from the bath. The primary shower picks up on the home’s artistic theme: It features a black-and-white abstract mural, envisioned by Straughan and painted by a local artist.

The kitchen, which is where Straughan’s friends and family hang out when he cooks, is defined by the central island, which, like the counters, is topped by white Caesarstone, a treatment that Straughan says was selected to create a “light, bright, airy, and fresh look.”

Dallas and Straughan had so much fun working together that they were almost sorry when the project was completed. They are kicking around the idea of doing another project together soon. “I have enough art for three homes, but I only own two,” Straughan says. “I’ll just have to find a second home in Mexico.”

“Let’s do it,” Dallas replies.

When a Boston couple built their modern Shingle-style second home on Martha’s Vineyard, they wanted their retreat to be as elegant as it is down to earth.

The residence, which was designed by Chuck Sullivan, AIA, principal of Sullivan + Associates Architects, and features interiors by Mika Durrell, founder of West Tisbury-based Able Moraine, is perched on a bluff presiding over Edgartown Harbor. Described by Durrell as “peacefully designed with efficient programming,” the weekend and holiday getaway is reached via a picturesque, meandering driveway and is nestled into the landscape to give top billing to the spectacular water views.

Using natural, reclaimed, and organic elements, Durrell created interior spaces that are rustic yet refined and reflective of the lifestyle of the couple and their twin college-age daughters. “The theme of this project was inspired, in large part, by the selection of the flooring, which the owners had used in a previous house,” Durrell says.

“Reclaimed oak with a blended variety of blonde and chocolate tones, it has a textural raked finish that looks like a saw blade was run across it. It became the base for a color palette of cream, tobacco, cognac, and burnt caramel.” In Durrell’s hands this strong base point grew like a plant trained on a wire. “It looks organic, but it’s all intentional,” she says, adding that “this project magically came together in a sophisticated way.”

The overall design, which Durrell calls “a balancing act that’s a nice blend of custom, retail, and specialty items,” makes the house “feel at ease” even though there’s a “sense of formality.” On this sedate scheme, Durrell layered natural materials—stone, copper, leather, rustic woods, wool, linen, cashmere, and alpaca—that add texture and a cozy warmth. “We had a simple recipe for the design,” she says. “Leather, wood, with a shard of metal and a little linen.”

Durrell’s collective of local artisans, including Whetstone Workshop for architectural metalwork, Jeff Soderbergh for reclaimed-wood furnishings, materials, and millwork, and artisan leather worker Jay Teske, created custom elements ranging from the ladder-like leather and wood towel rack in the primary suite to the copper fireplace mantel topper in the great room.

“Every piece is a work of art, and all of the natural elements and materials have character and history,” Durrell says. “The custom furniture, including a set of consoles and the sink counter in the guest bath, is inspired by the wood itself.”

The entry, which is defined by a simple wooden bench made from a slab of reclaimed wood and a mirror framed in forged copper, sets the tone for the home.

In the great room, a pair of curved sofas, upholstered in white linen, embrace the fireplace, and exposed ceiling beams, made of reclaimed wood, heighten the connection to the outdoor scenery framed by banks of windows. Geometric lamps provide soft illumination.

The dining room is a triumph in restrained craftsmanship, with each detail conveying, in a subtle manner, the work of the hand. The custom dining table, made of reclaimed wood, has a sleek, clean look. It’s softened by the chairs, which are wrapped in suede right down to the end of their legs.

The leather straps on the Roman valance that cleverly hides the automatic solar shades are repeated in the brass pendants that feature bloom-like porcelain globes and in the primary suite ottoman reposing at the foot of the bed. The primary suite highlights Durrell’s affinity for texture. The tactile room is grounded by an alpaca rug with a chocolate-color checkerboard design that is so soft and supple that one might be tempted to use it as a blanket.

“The room is a balance between light and dark, masculine and feminine,” she says.

One of the more unusual and amusing details in this highly crafted house is the handrail of the central staircase: It was braided by hand by Teske. Hand-crafted Moroccan Zellige tile ties the spaces together, the slight variations of each piece adding to the overall interest. Durrell used it to panel the window wall and stove wall in the kitchen and on the walls of the baths.

Each room is in a different complementary hue. Beveled and rounded edges on the walls, what Durrell calls a slight detail, are another distinctive ode to craftsmanship: They soften the spaces, providing a feeling of utmost comfort. “This house reflects my core values and the collective nature of my work,” Durrell says. “The objects that are made by the specialty fabricators bring the home to life because they are unique.”

By the poolside, there’s a slide—sleek, shiny, and sculptural—that makes you break into a big smile as soon as you see it even if you have no intention of gliding down its glistening length. For lounging in the bath, there’s an elegant hammock-shaped tub that looks as though it’s floating in thin air.

These fun and functional forms are the brainchild of Splinterworks, a U.K.-based luxury brand whose designs, according to founders Miles Hartwell and Matt Withington, pair a theatrical flair with exquisite visual tricks. “Our slides, which are custom, respond directly to the site, so we can work slides around into unusual layouts and can create striking sculptural slides that can even appear to defy gravity,” Hartwell says.

The duo, who found the fun in function when they started out making furniture, segued into slides when one of their Florida clients who had recently renovated his pool lamented the fact that he couldn’t find a design worthy of the new space. “We half-jokingly told him we would make some concepts for him,” Hartwell says. “From there,” Withington adds, “our first slide was born.”

Splinterworks—the fanciful name refers to the founders’ first foray, timber furniture that also served as functional sculpture—has created its signature slides and baths for an international clientele that includes AD 100 architects and designers, private homeowners, and resort-style boutique hotels.

Each design starts in a sketchbook that continues to grow over the course of the project. “For every design that makes it to fruition, there are 200 pages of those that haven’t,” Withington says.

Once the design comes together aesthetically, the partners concentrate on the structural integrity of the piece. “The most fertile ground for idea generation tends to be conversations with a sketchbook to hand, but, equally, we both find ideas do tend to just come to us as individuals,” Hartwell says. Withington adds that instinct also is their primary guide.

Although their original slide was mirrorpolished stainless steel that reflected its surroundings, they have developed other finishes. Steel is, indeed, hot to the touch, so the temperature is regulated with a sophisticated, proprietary system. “The slides cool within 15 seconds at the flick of a switch or a tap on your app,” Hartwell says, adding that recycled water from the pool is pumped through micro jets that cool the surface, handrails, and steps.

Splinterworks’ projects illustrate the versatility of the form. For a natural-stone house designed by architect Bobby McAlpine, Hartwell and Withington designed a slide made of bronze-finished natural copper that fits in with the setting’s warm, natural ambiance. “Because copper is a live material, we love to think of it as growing in beauty alongside the rest of the garden,” Withington says. “It will be magnificent to see it in the years to come as it develops its unique patina.”

In another design, to complement a contemporary-style house and pool in Ontario, Canada, that were designed by Slotegraaf Construction, Splinterworks took the form to the extreme, transforming the slide into a tripod and adding a tail. “The strict geometry of the multilevel, large-scale property was crying out to be played with,” Hartwell says. “Given the size of the space, with wide vistas over the Ontario landscape, we knew we needed to amplify our design to command enough presence to make it resonate in the environment.” 

Their response was a slide with what he calls a “wild tangle of curves.” “We found that by disrupting the lines of the architecture, not only did it make both elements sing, but it also invited the organic landscape into the property, connecting nature and the built environment,” he says. Withington adds that when “viewing the slide from different perspectives around the grounds, you strain to work out what it is.”

“And we love that,” Hartwell says.

Splinterworks also created a pair of double racing slides for an indoor pavilion designed by architect Rafael de Cardenas/ Architecture at Large. They complement the structure’s vaulted ceiling that’s lined with gill-like, sound-absorbing fins.

The Hammock Bath, Splinterworks’ other prime design, is the product of rounds of prototypes. “We were struck by the similarities of the ideas of kicking back in a hammock and losing yourself for a while in a quiet bath, little precious moments of me-time that allow you some escapism,” Hartwell says.

Noting that the hammock bath, which is made of carbon fiber and manufactured in the Formula 1 racing-car factory in the south of England, is “supremely ergonomic,” Withington says that “its gentle curve is so much better for your back than a deep tub with a flat base and steep sides that can crick your neck at just the wrong angle.”

The pair’s latest introduction is Downtime, a collection of candy- and custom-colored slides that are designed to be assembled on site. Assembling their three sections is almost as much fun as sliding down them, a point that delights Hartwell and Withington. “They allow the client to create a pool area that really reflects their personality and environment,” Hartwell says.

splinterworks.com

For years, Susan Smith longed for a beach house where she could hang out with and entertain family and friends. Her husband, Jay, wasn’t so keen on the idea. A second house, he reasoned, wouldn’t be relaxing: It would mean more work and responsibility.

But when they discovered Georgia’s Sea Island, an idyllic, ride-your-bike-everywhere community within a comfortable driving distance from their Atlanta home, his doubts dissolved.

“Sea Island is beautifully remote and beautifully not remote at the same time,” Susan says. “It’s a quiet residential area in a hotel setting.”

Originally, the Smiths were going to expand and renovate the existing house, but after consulting Bulent Baydar, the principal architect in Harrison Design’s Atlanta office, they decided to erect a new house. His team, in collaboration with the firm’s St. Simons Island office, executed the design, and Joe Bowles Construction, based in St. Simons Island, Georgia, built it.

The couple added one large caveat: They wanted to preserve the live oaks that dot the 1.2-acre wooded property and to take advantage of the views of the marsh.

“Most of the trees are over 100 years old,” Susan says, adding that “it’s a house of the trees.”

The L-shaped farmhouse weaves around the live oaks, including the magnificent one outside the living/dining area that is the centerpiece of the home’s original wooden deck.

Although Sea Island requires residences to be in a traditional style, the Smiths envisioned a more contemporary aesthetic, which is why the Harrison team decided to design a farmhouse that “creates the impression of generational architecture” that evolved over time, Baydar says.

“We wanted a place where we can kick back and relax,” Susan says. “And we didn’t want it to look like our main house, which is traditional. We wanted clean lines and lots of windows to take in the great vistas.”

The materials Harrison Design selected—masonry, wood, and glass—define three distinct yet complementary time periods in the farmhouse’s fabricated past.

As a gesture to history, the contemporary farmhouse is erected around a new massive, open wall of masonry with a chimney that looks as though it’s from a much earlier structure. The so-called “older” elements of its façade are defined by a subtle tabby stucco treatment, whose stenciled grooves mimic cut stone, a rustic feature.

The farmhouse, which is clad in five-inch clapboard siding and has a standing-seam metal roof and wooden purlins, gets its contemporary edge from dramatic glass A-frames.

The L shape of the house allowed Baydar and his team to continue the illusion of a compound that had, indeed, been created over generations.

The L’s one-story long leg, the more traditional section of the farmhouse, has vaulted ceilings and contains the major rooms—the living/dining area, the primary suite, the family room, the kitchen, the office, and the screened porch, which is illuminated by a clerestory window in its cupola.

Sleek steel doors and windows, another slightly more contemporary touch, create an indoor-outdoor air.

The shorter, two-story leg, which houses a guest wing and a two-car garage that is styled as one of the older sections of the farmhouse, offered another opportunity to modernize without compromise: The back-facing wall is all glass.

The farmhouse’s main staircase, which is illuminated by room-height windows, is a traditional-contemporary masterpiece. It floats in the space, its plain, industrial-style aluminum railing a counterpoint to its French oak treads.

The home’s interior, by Bill Mohr of Atlanta-based Stewart Mohr Designs, features a palette that is a study in restraint. Wide-plank French oak floors, which are so light in color they look as though they’re lime-washed, ground the white art-gallery-like walls and the plate-glass windows and their minimal frames. 

Like the façade, key features of the interior, including the fireplaces in the living/dining area and the screened porch, are plastered in tabby stucco, odes to the residence’s supposed storied evolution.

The screened porch, one of Susan’s favorite spots, is clad in tongue-and-groove boards that rise to its cupola.

The kitchen, where the Smiths spend a lot of time, is a light taupe color with white accent tile. There is a trio of windows over the sink and a large central island that’s styled as a farm table, complete with a sink. The ceiling is clad in pecky cypress, the only element that was reclaimed from the original house.

“The juxtaposition between the modern and the traditional elements in the farmhouse,” Baydar says, “plays well together. It creates a pretty harmonious structure.”

The Smiths couldn’t agree more. Susan loves waking up each morning and viewing the old live oak and the marsh from her bed.

“It’s a beautiful, restful place,” she says.

And she’s most pleased by the fact that Jay, too, has fallen in love with the beach house. 

“He loves it—maybe even more than I do,” she says. 

Learn more about the project team

Architecture: Harrison Design
Interior design: Stewart Mohr Designs

On the Osterville, Massachusetts, waterfront, surrounded by dunes and wetlands, stands Windswept, a new-construction summer residence whose sinuous Shingle-style design is a subtle salute to its seaside setting.

Gaze at the bell-shaped curve of its rooftop and what do you see? Is it a whale? A seagull? A manta ray? A wave? An ocean current?

John DaSilva, FAIA, didn’t have a particular nautical image in mind when he designed the house, and he really loves the idea that its true beauty lies in the eye of each beholder.

“Multiple readings enrich the architecture,” says DaSilva, design principal of Cape Cod–based Polhemus Savery DaSilva (PSD), a fully integrated architecture and construction firm. “Different readings can come from different people.”

Windswept, which gets its name from the beautiful ocean breezes that whisper seductively in its ears, was designed and built for a couple who have a profound love for traditional architecture.

“They requested a new house to replace the marginally functional non-historic house that had been on their property,” says DaSilva, adding that an existing guesthouse was retained and slightly renovated. “They also sought a somewhat formal character to contain a lifetime of collections of traditional furniture, artwork and antiques—but a formality mitigated by the need to also be a comfortable beach house for family togetherness and fun.”

Windswept, whose dramatic bell-shaped curved roof is clad with red cedar shingles and whose sidewalls are covered in Alaskan yellow cedar, references the neighborhood’s architecture and that of classic 19th- and early 20th-century New England seaside resorts.

“The neighborhood has some of the best Shingle-style houses on the Cape, so we took inspiration from them,” DaSilva says. “The style is relatively loose and malleable, so you can express shapes and geometry and images rather freely because the house is wrapped in a membrane of wood shingles, which unifies disparate elements.”

He points to the hand-crafted “playful eyebrows” at the porch openings, where the shingles pull away from the wall, curving in vertical and horizontal planes. “It’s an anthropomorphic detail with dynamic character,” he says.

Playing with scale to minimize perception of the size of the 5,191-square-foot house and “humanize it,” PSD selected larger shingles to create greater spacing between them and added oversize windows and muntins. 

“The form we have made is its own,” DaSilva says. “The proportions and the way we used the shingle style aren’t a copy of any other house. Its unique to the client and the location.”

The front, whose entrance is framed by a trio of grand arches and a door that’s a bit off center to offer views of the grand staircase, which is curved like a seashell, and the bay beyond, has fewer windows than the back, which faces the water.

“This house is in a dance between the formal and the informal,” he says. “The location of the front door is not strong enough to throw off the symmetrical balance, but it does weaken the formality.”

A two-story octagonal tower houses the breakfast room and library. It is connected to a one-story wing containing the family room and screened-in porch, each of which is defined by a soaring ceiling.

The wing’s undulating roof line suggests a nautical theme that’s open to interpretation. “Is it a boat or a sea creature?” DaSilva asks. “It’s evocative; it creates character.”

To satisfy the owners’ request for detail and tradition, DaSilva designed simplified classical pilasters, arches, ceilings and crown and dentil moldings that are in sync with the residence’s semi-casual look.

“I’m the molding queen,” the homeowner says. “I told him that the more he put in the happier I’d be.”

DaSilva more than obliged.

The living room, for instance, has a coffered ceiling and three archways that echo those at the front entrance, and the dining room and breakfast room are centered around dramatic handkerchief domes. 

“The domes pop up in the center but also hang down at the perimeter,” he says, adding that they were chosen because “they add character in spaces where there was limited ability to go higher.”

The classic architectural details, the homeowner says, “give the house charm and character.”

The house is sited so that all the major rooms have direct water views. The wing containing the family room and screened-in porch was angled to exploit the scenery. 

The “classic but comfortable spaces are ideal for entertaining,” the homeowner says, adding that “we love sharing our house with friends and family.”

When asked about her favorite parts of the house, she lists every room. “There are special things about all of them, which I know is unusual,” she says.

Indeed, the owners love the house so much that they keep delaying their departure for their winter home in South Carolina. “We are at Windswept in the spring and the summer and right through Thanksgiving,” the homeowner says.

“This is such a special house that will remain timeless,” says Aaron Polhemus, owner and CEO of PSD. “It is always enjoyable to see a project through our entire process—starting with permitting, then architectural design, landscape design, and overall construction. Completing a house and having the homeowners love it and their time there is the ultimate goal.” 

For more information, visit psdab.com

Concealed behind a hydrangea and rose-clad stucco wall on Wianno Head is a compound that’s so confident of its status that it makes itself one with its natural surroundings.

“This is one of the most magnificent properties in Osterville,” says landscape architect Dan K. Gordon, the founder and principal of the firm that bears his name. “It has water views on three sides; it’s wonderful to work on a site that has spaces with multiple water views.”

The fact that the property is so exposed created constraints and opportunity, adds Peter Stephens, project manager and principal at Dan Gordon Landscape Architects. “We had to come up with ways to preserve the views while mitigating the prevailing winds.”

At the owners’ request, the outdated Mediterranean-style stucco house was renovated and modernized by Daniel H. Reynolds Design Collaborative in a classic New England shingle style, setting the groundwork for landscaping by the Gordon team.

“It’s a landmark property,” Gordon says. “The owners really wanted to develop the character of the house, and the property, into a seaside shingle vernacular. To that end, the landscape improvements were transformational.”

Gordon and his team exploited the spectacular water views, overhauling the gardens on the 2.5-acre property to develop a design that incorporates spaces for maximum active enjoyment of the landscape.

The property, at the termination of a dead-end street, was pretty much a blank slate: A grassy back lawn opens to a vegetated dune that separates the maintained landscape from the seawall and ocean.

To protect the property from storm damage, the seawall was rebuilt and heightened, invasive vines were removed, and the dune was restored with native plantings. A deteriorating sunken garden at the rear of the house was removed and replaced with a pool and pool garden.

“There were mature trees growing throughout the property,” Stephens says. “We worked to preserve the trees and plantings, transplanting hundreds of shrubs–it was like re-arranging the furniture in a house.”

The edited plantings are bolstered by hundreds of new ones, creating layers of flowering shrubs and perennials, including hydrangeas, roses of Sharon and rhododendrons, ornamental grasses such as feather reed and fountain grass, and groundcovers, notably liriope.

The Gordon team reimagined the space as three hubs of activity: a firepit terrace, a pool terrace, and a dining terrace.

The redesign started with the driveway, whose looped parking court, deposited visitors at the guesthouse first before branching off to the main residence. The drive itself was redone, lined with cobblestones and filled with pea stone. Parking at the main house was screened by hedges and perennial plantings.

The drive’s layout was reworked, and an entry gate installed at the street. 

“The compound is very hidden from the street, and there’s a planted buffer between neighboring houses,” Stephens says. “If you didn’t know it was there, you would not see it, which makes it intriguing.”

The stucco guest house, which was re-roofed to match the revamped main residence and which has its own kitchen, parking court, terrace, outdoor shower and dock, is now appropriately set back from the main drive.

The separation is emphasized by a privet hedge and plantings of Oakleaf and Limelight hydrangeas and Hayscented ferns as well as a secondary drive. 

Next to the main parking court, Gordon’s team added a potting shed and vegetable garden for the family’s enjoyment. It’s enclosed with a cedar and wire fence that keeps rabbits out and creates a clean architectural edge to the parking court.

One of the key changes to the property was adding an infinity-edge pool at the rear of the house where the sunken garden had been. 

“It’s a central feature of the landscape,” Gordon says, adding that there was no existing pool. “It’s slightly elevated from the lawn space to create a seamless connection between the main family living space and the adjacent solarium. The elevated nature of the pool garden allows for shorter fences to be used for security around the pool while preserving the views.”

The new firepit terrace, with a cabana that has been rebuilt as a beach bar, also is at the back of the house. A custom pergola, complete with motorized screens at the bar, and glass fences at the dining terrace and pool help reduce wind in key areas.

The dining terrace, another family gathering spot, is off the kitchen. It has a built-in grill and custom cabinetry and supports a private chef and serving staff for the family’s frequent entertaining.   

“Our design is casual yet deliberate and transforms an outdated property into a refined family compound with modern amenities for contemporary living,” Stephens says. “We took what was there that was good and made it more usable. We developed spaces for people to enjoy outside.” 

For more information, visit dangordon.com