Its interiors may have been inspired by the historic look of Charleston, South Carolina, but a new home in Port Aransas, Texas, will never feel old.

That’s because interior designer Meredith Owen knows how to work not just with the past, but also with the future. And for the interiors of this 6,000-square-foot residence overlooking the Texas Gulf Coast, she applied that knowledge with understated elegance.

Owen, owner of the Austin-based interior design firm that bears her name, worked hand in glove with her clients for a feel that’s totally different from other homes in the planned community of Sunflower Beach. “They didn’t want it to be super-bright and white, like every other beach house,” she says. “They wanted a Charleston vibe—not white oak floors, but some darker colors and moodier counters,” she says.”

Both home and community were designed by architect Mark Schnell, principal in Florida-based Schnell Urban Design. A dedicated advocate of the New Urbanism prevalent along Florida’s Highway 30A, he created Texas coastal developments including Cinnamon Shore and Palmilla Beach. And like the Florida waterfront communities of Seaside, Rosemary Beach, and Watercolor, Sunflower Beach embraces walkability, connectivity, and architectural quality.

“I’ve been involved with the Sunflower Beach project from the beginning, and I’ve touched just about every aspect of design in the community,” he says. “I designed the master plan in 2013, wrote the design code in 2014 and 2015, and provided design review for all houses and landscape.”

This house, though, was his first design in the community, and he didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to create a Gulf-front home for one of its developers. “I tried to design a house worthy of the incredible views and the prominent location adjacent to the dune crossover,” he says. “With a stunning view of the beach and the Gulf of Mexico, I thought it was a chance to design a landmark not just for Sunflower Beach, but also for Mustang Island as a whole.”

Peter Young, the cofounder of UWC Custom Builders in Port Aransas, was hired to build the new home. When its framing was nearly complete, ownership suddenly changed hands. “The new owners were business partners with the original owners,” he says. “They went back to the drawing board, and that’s when Meredith was brought on for additional elements.”

Inside the home’s five bedrooms on three levels, interior designer Owen and her team created spaces to welcome multiple generations of her new clients’ family. “We customized each space to family members,” she says. “We worked with them to let us be more creative, like with the chandelier in the living area that comes down three stories from the top.”

The design code Schnell wrote for residences at Sunflower Beach embraced elements like the location of the front door, the parking areas, the balconies and the three-part massing, all incorporated as signature elements for construction there. He broke each home’s design down into a primary mass, a secondary garage area, and a connector between the two. “It prevents the home from becoming too bulky, and creates a comfortable scale along the street,” he says.

Like most homes at Sunflower Beach, this one’s porches and balconies are some of its most memorable features. Schnell placed special emphasis on verticality, with the dining room, living room, and porch columns especially tall and soaring.

“The porch on the north side of the second level extends out from the body of the house and includes massive 12-by-12-inch brackets below and equally massive 12-by-12-inch columns that are more than 18 feet tall in some locations,” he says. 

Inside, rather than reinvent the wheel for the new house, the architect looked back to a popular floor plan as its starting point, one that had been successful elsewhere. He adjusted his design to adapt to its 60-by-100-foot lot, as well as to the needs of his clients. “The entry experience is notable for the courtyard and foyer featuring a view out to a small garden,” he says.

The first level includes two bedrooms with a bunk room and media area at its center. The second level features two more bedrooms and a powder room, plus living space. There’s a kitchen with large island designed for dining, a living room, and a dining area, each within a window-filled, double-height space with a wraparound porch. On the third level is a primary suite with private porch and expansive views of the Gulf.

For context, the home’s aligned with three others in a row, a fourth now under construction. “It’s sitting next to a house that’s blue and has brighter colors, like maroon shingles on top,” says interior designer Owen. “We wanted something softer, and to let the beach be the star of the show.”

And they succeeded—but, still, this home glows inside and out with a light all its own.

A new home in Los Cabos by Brandon Architects blends an Old World feel with a modern aesthetic. It’s in the community of Maraville Los Cabos on the tip of the Baja Peninsula. Better yet, it’s adjacent to Montage Los Cabos, with access to all its amenities. And it has views to die for.

Out front and to the south, the Pacific Ocean stretches endlessly. Behind it, to the north-northwest, lies the tranquility of Santa Maria Bay. The architects smartly elevated, rotated, and curated the home to take advantage of it all.

“It’s not on the water, but a row behind, on the second tier up,” says Ryan McDaniel, partner and principal architect at the Costa Mesa, California–based firm.

Chris Brandon, who opened the office that bears his name in 2009, was savvy enough to check into the Montage Los Cabos so he could watch ongoing construction details for his clients. “They were private and had concerns about views from the Montage,” he says. “That’s one reason we did the architecture the way we did.”

An entry archway provides privacy from the street, while a central courtyard opens up views above. “Neighbors or friends come through that archway,” McDaniel says. “We used pocket doors and window walls to maximize views and connect the indoor and outdoor living and entertaining areas. 

The home is 12,600 square feet of air-conditioned space three stories with garage, plus two levels above and a roof deck. There are eight bedrooms and 13 baths. The clients, a family from Dallas, have five grown children, plus grandchildren. It’s a vacation retreat and a legacy property they use for family gatherings.

“There are different wings so the kids can bring their kids,” McDaniel says. “There are three bunkrooms, five junior suites, and an adjacent kids’ room, for a multigenerational home, and shared central living spaces with private wings for children and grandchildren.”

Brandon and McDaniel worked closely with Cabo Development Group’s Darin Antin, who served as architect of record and builder for the project. His firm ranges from 125 to 175 employees at any given time, including six full-time architects and four engineers.

“I know what to look for in terms of topography and geometry,” Antin says. “I do my own foundations, structural work, and masonry, and have my own heavy equipment—we’ve got evidence here that we can do any level of work.”

Antin’s a California native who’s been coming to Cabo since his parents, avid sport-fishers and divers, started bringing him here as a child. He’s lived in Cabo now for 30 years as a full-time resident, and working as designer, general contractor, and custom builder. His staff is 100 percent local, including artisans like stonemasons and joiners.

“I have a miller and a finish carpenter,” he says. “All the millwork—every cabinet, all the built-ins, interior doors and woodwork—it’s all done by one guy.”

For this project, Antin’s firm served not only as builder and supplier of Italian windows and Portuguese doors, but also as translators for English into Spanish, plus feet and inches into metrics—and as the go-to source for working through local rules and regulations.

“They dovetailed with us for codes, permitting, and construction documents,” Brandon says. “They were a great team of engineers and architects who picked up the ball where we left off.”

Inside, interior designer and Dream Home Makeover star Shea McGee of Salt Lake City’s Studio McGee wanted to create an atmosphere of luxurious beachfront living with indoor/outdoor elements. She took note of the windows and their stunning views throughout the house.

“Showcasing them was an integral part of the design process in every room,” she says. “We wanted as many windows as possible, as well as carving out areas where the indoors could meld with the outdoors.”

She saw the architects’ nods to the local vernacular, like arched doors in primary bedrooms and hand-painted tiles. “The traditional Spanish design influenced the furnishings we brought in, as well as the color palette,” she says. “We used local plaster artisans for the walls and sourced local wood for a few handmade pieces.”

And she added elements of a luxury hotel to the home as well. The clients wanted a house they could entertain in, for hosting friends and family in Mexico for their beach vacations. “One of their requests was to make the bedrooms color-coded so guests could easily find their way around,” she says. “We used the materials and the color palette to make it feel homey and inviting.”

Wood, linen, stone, and leather all meld seamlessly into their surroundings. The home may be coastal, McGee says, but she focused on timeless materials that are of the earth.

And that’s exactly what the architects wanted: a home in the Mexican tradition, but expressed in a contemporary language.

The Coastal Source product launch of late February likely will be remembered as one of 2024’s most ambitious. Overhead, inside the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, a 363-foot-long, Saturn V rocket stretched its three stages out lengthwise. Below were exhibits demonstrating how technicians designed, built and launched 13 of these behemoths from 1967 to 1973, most bound for the moon.

But on this February evening, the eyes of more than 200 Coastal Source employees, dealers, clients, and the press were riveted not on the rocket above, but on another stage before them, manned by mere mortals. Coastal Source President Jeff Poggi and CEO Franco D’Ascanio were introducing two new outdoor product lines – one for high-end lighting and another for state-of-the art sound.

Coastal Source’s roots reach back to 2009 when two minds merged. “It was founded by Franco D’Ascanio and Harold Zimmermann,” Poggi says. “They came together because they couldn’t find products on the market to stand the harsh environment of the outdoors.”

D’Ascanio was engaged in his family’s design/build firm based in Marathon, Florida. He’d built a home for Zimmermann and his wife, but a year later its outdoor lighting components were degrading. “Franco went to the manufacturer, who said, ‘Sorry – it’s too close to the coast,’” Poggi says.

Frustrated, he developed a white paper on outdoor lighting durability. He shared it with Zimmermann, they shook hands, and Coastal Source was born. “They had the manufacturing experience, logistics and internet software we needed,” D’Ascanio says.

Now he’s engaged in R&D. And he’s effective: In 15 years, Coastal Source has provided lighting and sound systems to about 2,000 private projects across the nation. Durability remains his main driver. “The question is, ‘What does it take to maintain a product for decades?’” he says.

Case in point: The company’s new 1000 series of loudspeakers outperforms everything the it’s produced in eight years. It embraces the next generation of bollards with new cabinet design, acoustic suspension, and casing. “It’s going from closure with an opening to no opening, so there’s no point of ingress below grade,” says Peter Sepesi, director of sales.

For sound quality, clients can create their own speaker. “Think of Legos – you can get both a dispersion pattern and the low frequency output you want,” he says. “You can go from background or entertaining music to digital, multi-channel, outdoor surround sound.”

And clients have options. For a 60-foot-by-40-foot infinity pool, Sepesi sees two ways to provide sound. One is to bury a number of small speakers in the landscape. Another is to place two large speakers at the pool’s far edge. “Some people might not mind the larger, and some might want the smaller – it’s client-dependent,” he says.

For EVO, the company’s new lighting series, Coastal Source designed a new miniaturized LED module with a capability far beyond a larger fixture. “Advancements in technology and thoughtfulness mean bigger output in a smaller device,” Sepesi says.

EVO’s attractive too, a response from architects and interior designers who noted that if it’s visible in the environment, why not make it beautiful? So it’s 100% brass, designed to develop a patina over time.

The fixtures can be hidden in the landscape so the lighting’s impact can be seen, but not its source. For path lighting, EVO offers decorative options. “We make them quiet and elegant, with perforating revolving lines and angles,” D’Ascanio says.

Sure, it took 400,000 technicians to build and launch those Saturn V rockets decades ago. And they were nothing if not ambitious. But now Coastal Source is proving their can-do spirit is alive, well and flourishing today.

coastalsource.com

Good things come, an old Chinese proverb says, in pairs. There’s the balance between yin and yang. The contrast of salt and pepper. And the possibilities of pen and paper.

Then there’s Stephanie Halfen of SDH Studio Architecture + Design and her husband, Ricardo, of Treo Construction (she’s an architect; he’s a builder) who teamed up for a new home overlooking Sky Lake in Florida. The interior design team? Alanna Kleiner and Adriana Grauer, dual principals in a firm they call AGSIA. The clients are a couple who share the Halfens’ Venezuelan background and are their close friends to boot.

Together they envisioned, designed, and built a home on a lot overlooking a rare freshwater lake, ten minutes from Miami Beach. “There are practically no lakes here, and when there is one, alligators are in it,” Ricardo says. “This one doesn’t connect to the ocean system or salt water: there’s no marine life, so people can swim there.”

For this outdoorsy couple and their children, living outside was the raison d’etre for their new home. So their architect aimed to bring in views of the lake, integrate inside with outside, and blur their lines, but make it all functional too. That was no mean feat, given that the lot’s shaped like a trapezoid, and the prime view is off to the left.

Stephanie designed one wing of the 4,100-square-foot home with privacy for its bedrooms in mind. Another wing is semiprivate, for the kitchen and family room. The center space is the heart of the home, designed for living and dining. “They’re continually walking around in it, for the views and the landscape,” Stephanie says. “It’s a house that’s very cozy, and at the same time open to the outside.”

She achieved that with a center space that rises higher than the two wings, opening up to sky and water. She dropped down the rooflines for the kitchen and bedroom wings, for a more opaque effect. “The center is more impressive, but it’s cozier on the sides where the more intimate areas are,” she says.

Her design intent was to reinterpret the midcentury modern style, with flat, double-height rooflines that are slightly sloped but barely noticeable. What is noticeable is a malleable center space for entertaining and big gatherings. “They can open up the inside to the outside and meld them together,” Ricardo says. “And there’s the patio, pool, dock and lake. It all flows together well.”

The drop down from house to lake is a steep 10 feet, so the architect and builder graded it and created descending sections on separate levels. The main approach to the home is on the street level; overlooking the lake at the rear is a lawn, then a pool and deck, and finally the lake.

The descent from house to lake is designed as an enjoyable passage, with five platforms along the way. “They make the transition smooth,” Stephanie says. “Then, when you’re in the lake, there’s a very nice feeling of going up and down the whole circulation.”

Inside, Kleiner and Grauer used restraint as they worked with the architecture, the fixtures, and the furnishings, taking care to focus on the view of the lake and bring its darker tones inside. “There are natural colors like terra cotta and greens, layered with a lot of textures,” Kleiner says. “The leather in the furniture is in natural colors, heavily textured, warm, and comfortable for the Miami weather.”

Interior spaces inside are narrow and tall, she says. To deal with high ceilings in the great room, the interior designers used accents with vertical lighting to bring them down to human scale. The kitchen and dining area are separated by a floor-to-ceiling partition, though there is a good flow between the two.

Along with using slabs of stone and limestone-like tile, the interior designers wrapped much of the kitchen in a manufactured wood that ties it all together. An engineered wood product, it’s three-quarters of an inch of white oak, layered like plywood and then installed as tongue and groove. “It’s five millimeters on the back,” Ricardo says.

The new home is sited in a neighborhood that’s steadily upgrading its stock of about 40 homes built back in the 1970s. It’s the third that Kleiner and Grauer have updated on the lake. “They’re getting renovated, from traditional developers’ houses to personalized, upgraded homes,” Kleiner says. “Most are getting redone.”

Here, the two interior designers worked hand in hand with the architect, builder, and clients for a flawless design and presentation. “It’s hard to separate the architecture from the interior,” she says. “It’s very blended.”

That’s because good things so often come in pairs.

sdhstudio.com

Halfway between Los Cabos and Cabos San Lucas, atop a four-story residential building peering out to Santa Maria Cove, lies a portable jewel-box paradise.

Not that the penthouse itself can be moved, of course. No this is a 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom idyll that heartily embraces the Italian concept of mobili. That is, its walls stand still, but its high-style furnishings are flexible. They’re ready to move at the drop of a hat.

“It cultivates a sense of looseness and ease, but it’s still elegant,” says architect Abigail Turin, cofounder of the international firm of Kallos Turin. “It fits with coastal living because it gives you the feeling of being easy and relaxed, not formal.”

Turin and her cofounder Stephania Kallos met while working in the London office of rockstar architect David Chipperfield. From him, they learned how to collaborate with architects around the globe. “His model was to work all over the world, but without offices all over the world,” she says. “That became our model. We’ve worked in Austria, France, and South America with architects of record who’ve become our collaborators.”

After a year with Chipperfield, Turin moved to New York and remodeled four floors of Gordon Bunshaft’s groundbreaking 1952 Lever House, while Kallos remained in London. They formed their own firm in 2003; Turin is now based in San Francisco, and Kallos remains in England.

“We started out by faxing sketches back and forth, when that wasn’t being done much—it was before the pandemic,” Turin says. “Today, Stephania is still in London, and we work remotely.”

The firm’s Cabo penthouse is the product of a wide and deep understanding of the minimalism the firm embraces. Here, Turin worked overtime to blend modern and local languages in a way that’s fresh, elegant, and spirited. It is at once of its place, and new in its presentation.

She started with her own take on what it really means to have a vacation house at the tip of the Baja peninsula. Her first statement came from Le Corbusier’s Tabouret Wood Boxes from the 1940s, the Swiss architect’s definition of flexibility itself. “There are little handles on two sides so you can pick them up and move them,” she says. “They can be used as side tables or benches or stools and can be easily reassembled.”

In pursuit of chic and simple versatility, Turin then took aim at other furnishings that could be easily moved and realigned, for the feeling of freedom that’s inherent with travel and a laid-back sentiment. The best case in point might be a bar in the living area that’s actually a Poltrona Frau steamer trunk in disguise. “It’s an elegant but informal reconfiguration,” she says.

Her eclectic material palette reflects a near-genius sense of possibilities, with help from artisans who ply the craftsmanship of the region. A low table in the living area came from a slab of wood salvaged from a tree that fell nearby. Terracotta planters were traditional and locally sourced, handmade rugs were woven at a nearby mill, and handcrafted furnishings were created by local makers.

A mosaic of handmade tiles on the wall of the dining area came from Fireclay Tile in California. Floors are all travertine marble, and the woods for the living area are a mix of raw, natural, and ebonized oak, along with walnut. “The entry hall wall is terracotta-colored, with hat hooks that are all different kinds of woods,” she says.

Besides breathtaking views of Santa Maria Cove above unseen single family homes below, the penthouse looks out also to the desert and hills of Baja’s wilderness. Other developments there—erected behind gates and walls—seek to create a lush, non-native tropical environment that’s essentially a wannabe reality.

But here, the developers and their architects wanted to preserve, protect and promote the existing landscape, like cacti and succulents, rather than look to foreign plant materials that gobble up precious water. So the color palette at Maraville Resort is olive green and terracotta from the nearby flora, with pops of red from cactus flowers.

“The color palette works well there; it plays around with vibrant jolts,” Turin says. “It’s the same as the artisanal work, with hot shots of color.”

It’s a motif and a melody that extend even to the open-air deck that overlooks the cove, where sea and sky merge into shades of blue. “It’s a stone’s throw from the water, but way above it,” Turin says.

Inside, it may be portable, but outside this penthouse is at one with nature.

kallosturin.com

A new home in the Hollywood Hills community of Doheny Estate is as layered and complex as the two partners who designed and built it.

Arya Martin is Persian, but went to school in Orange County, where he studied business and finance. Michael Martin is from Northern California but was educated in Germany and worked as a travel writer for U.K. magazines until he moved on to a career in interior design. He started out in Los Angeles. “I was doing my first house in Encino, and he helped me finish it when we met,” Arya says.

Before long, they were partners for life and in business, too, as designers and developers in a firm they call Studio OSKLO. Its newest project is also the Martins’ home, and sited on their half-acre lot. They’ve lived in Doheny Estates for almost two decades now, and spent three years planning and building their 8,000-square-foot home, one that backs up to a massive granite outcropping.

They knew they wanted to create a modern estate that blended contemporary and midcentury modern architecture—a nod to the 1960s ranch that had to be taken down to make way for the new house. And they let the natural landscape surrounding the home define their direction.

“We chose the earthy tones of the granite hillside in the rear of the property as direction for the herringbone oak floors,” Michael says. “Then we added a front and rear colonnade typical of homes found in L.A. in the 1960s and ’70s.” A four-sided symmetrical structure can feel like a box, but a wraparound colonnade and planted second-floor courtyards lent this one the ambience of a modern agora. “It makes the interior feel like it’s part of that rocky landscape,” he says.

They brought in landscape architect Joel Galarza to create a terrain that blends into the natural hillside from each side of the property, as well as the inside atrium. “The site features that upslope granite rock exposure to the rear and a higher retaining wall on the front side,” he says. “For some, those would be obstacles, but we played into it and created exaggerated privacy in front and an Aman resort-like setting in the rear.”

The designers used a muted white on outside walls, with creamy tones that soften the columns in sunlight. Wood paneling wraps second floor terraces for privacy. Interior plaster is a sheen-free muted white. “For the kitchen, we picked Calacatta Paonazzo because we wanted it to have a vintage feel and warm up the space,” he says. “For the bar in the living room, we used Calacatta Gold for something that has the same tone as the kitchen stone.” 

They used oversized corridors around the atrium, with full-wall wood paneling of white oak, which is repeated also in the upper hallway and TV room. In public rooms, they chose tight groupings of furniture to create a cozier ambiance for evening talks and small cocktail parties.

All the interior furnishings were custom designed by the two partners, and the art came from their own collections. “So much of our personalities are reflected in the interior, like the carpets brought from Iran by Arya’s family,” Michael says. “We used collectibles, found in cities like Madrid, Sao Paolo, and Marrakesh, that express our love of travel and art.”

The home may be in the Hollywood Hills, but it’s chock-full of Japanese antiquarian accents. Antiques were sourced from local shops and stores in Tokyo—and even nearby flea markets. A close look reveals Japanese pottery, 19th-century bronzes and clay collectibles on built-in shelves and tabletops. But their tastes favor works that can only be called eclectic. One of the pair’s favored pieces is a 1960s bronze bust on a pedestal up in the second-floor hallway.

The dining room features artwork believed to be by Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka. “The living room features our Studio OSKLO travertine coffee table of solid stone,” he says. “It’s one of our favorite pieces, and available at 1stDibs.”

Sure, it’s a highly personal, peel-back-the-onion approach to architecture, landscape, and interior design. But it’s clean and crisp—and for these two, it works like a charm.

When an architect like Tel Aviv’s Oshir Asaban decides to design his own living space, he does it for two reasons. First, he can explore and embrace all the features and details his clients might hesitate to consider. Second, he can create a space to show the world what an uninhibited architect can do.

So in a penthouse on the 17th floor of a Tel Aviv high-rise, Asaban began to craft a new kind of home out of a nearly 2,000-squarefoot concrete shell, with two balconies and a view of the Mediterranean Sea. “It took thousands of hours,” says the architect, who was educated at Ariel University. “You’re your own supervisor, and I was here every day—sometimes twice a day—to see it done just like I wanted.”

A dedicated fan of midcentury modern architecture, Asaban designed not only the interiors, but much of the furniture as well, including the dining room table, coffee table, bed, and lighting fixtures. “It’s 100 percent by me—including the textures and the marble,” he says. “When I’m working with my clients, sometimes I have to convince them to use furniture they’re afraid of, but here, I was not afraid at all.”

He awoke one morning at the start of the project with the idea of sliding walls instead of doors to divide interior spaces (except for baths). At one moment, the penthouse could be all one room; at another, he and his partner could enjoy their own activities as they chose. The main space is the kitchen area, and since the couple works from home, someone is always cooking while the other is working. “There are two rooms that open into one big space, and there’s a big balcony with dining, a barbecue, and a view to the sea,” he says.

Off the master suite is a second balcony, where the couple planted a garden. The master bath is clad in natural lilac marble from Turkey, arranged in an irregular vertical pattern on the walls, with Hamat bath fixtures. “We used large format tiles, with floors laid in slabs, to make it quieter,” he says.

Asaban, who’s designed four hotels in Germany and Hungary, did not create this penthouse space by himself alone: His partner also had a say. “I did whatever I wanted, but opened my ears to his comments for good ideas, too,” the architect says.

And he collaborated with experts in interior design and audiovisual and multimedia effects. For textiles, blinds, and curtains, he turned to Ella Shlomov, owner of Ella Design. On the technology side, he enlisted aid from Yossi Gol, CEO of Mart Home Company.

Gol started with discussions about Asaban’s A/V wants and needs at the start of the design, then spec’d them out. “We did sketches, and it was like ping-pong between us until we had all the systems decided on,” Gol says. “We did all the spaces like that, together.” They aligned speakers in the ceilings with light fixtures. They created different zones for A/V and multimedia systems, including the outdoor balconies.

“There’s a party mode for them all to work together, or you can listen only in the kitchen,” he says. “But if you do use it for the entire home, you may want it louder in some parts and quieter in others.” Asaban decided where to place keypads, while Gol’s technicians worked with a team of electricians to handle wiring, installation, and programming.

Once installed, the architect stepped in for modifications. “What we do is very personal, especially when the client is an architect,” Gol says. “It’s not like you go to the store, buy it, and bring it home. It’s just the opposite—you plan it and then install it.”

Designer Shlomov used the sandy tones of Mediterranean beaches as a reference point for her color palette, selecting textures in wools, cottons, and linens. The fabrics, she says, are as unique as her client. “We wanted to make exactly what he wanted—for his dream come true,” she says.

“We wanted a special apartment with details that no one else has because he’s unique in how he thinks outside the box.” Asaban’s well known for an intense passion in the details for all his interiors, she says.

“This is not just a white carpet treatment, because he’s so very open-minded,” she says. “I don’t know of any other architect like him—everything was correct, because the name of his game is details.” That’s in part because he designed the home for himself and his partner, and in part because it’s his professional showroom.

“You want it to be everything on one hand, and on the other, it has to be restrained,” he says. And by working with collaborators he trusted implicitly, he managed to strike that balance.

At first glance the hero of a modern new home in Southampton, Long Island, might be architect Blaze Makoid. But the unsung heroes here are landscape architects from LaGuardia Design Group— along with interior architects Halliday Greer. Makoid’s design rises 10 feet above grade, a glassy gem on a barrier island overlooking the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Shinnecock Bay to the north.

The clients purchased their five-and-a-half-acre lot with zoning already approved, locking in the home’s size and location. That presented the designers with both challenges and opportunities. “We knew that if we had to go back with anything that changed it, that would kick the project back to square one,” Makoid says.

It was prescribed for six bedrooms, but the clients wanted 11, anticipating the eventual return of three children, post-college, with grandchildren. So the architect designed a series of suites—each with a bedroom for parents and another for children.

Then there was the entertainment question. “They’ll have really large groups of 20, 30, or 40 people over,” he says. “The expanding dining table seats 60.” The landscape architects shaped the ocean side to accommodate guests. “There’s a whole slew of seating areas outside,” he says. “On move-in day, we counted over 80 seats.”

That was just a finishing touch. It came only after LaGuardia already had reconstructed the landscape around the home. “We reimagined that property, regraded it, replaned it, and ripped out non-native plants,” Chris LaGuardia says.

A 1980s house of no real significance was taken down. Its north side had been one big driveway, with a lawn leading to the distant bay. A lower level was dominated by a freshwater-loving, cattail-like weed called phragmite, growing over clogged culverts. “The big part was to restore the wetlands to a tidal marsh,” says Daniel Tharp, partner in the firm.

They unclogged culverts, cut back weeds, and planted native grasses over a couple of acres of wetlands. “Saltwater infiltrates the culvert today,” he says. “We introduced some pollinator perennials like flowering milkweed, marshmallow, and joe-pye weed for bees and butterflies.”

On the ocean side, a series of compromised sand dunes offered their own challenge. Ragged and uneven, they were at the point of collapse. The designers approached village and state officials, who gave permission to reshape the site.

They removed a 15-foot-tall elevated bridge, 300 feet long, that once served as a walkway to the beach. Replacing it with a sandy dune walk, they began reshaping the rest of the area between house and beach. “There are terracing and subtle lifts in grade— we were restoring the natural contours,” LaGuardia says.

From the house to the pool, and then down to the beach, the landscape is now carefully punctuated with visitor-friendly spaces. Reshaped planes and new vegetation accommodate them, for seating areas where large and small groups gather. Around the house, the landscape architects planted maritime species, like those on the dunes, for a seamless setting.

Back on the bay side, the designers raised the approach to the house up off the natural grade, without stairs. The path to the front door is created from layers of two-to-three slabs of Valders limestone atop one another, eschewing steps and handrails. “We used the landscape to get to the front door softly,” Makoid says.

He used a different limestone, Chanteuil Jaune Bleu, to clad the building, along with black-stained cedar for a Japanese shou sugi ban look, one that reaches into the interior too. “Blaze was integrating the interior with the exterior,” says David Greer, principal in Halliday Greer Interior Architecture. “It’s a classic modernist approach, designed so it wraps around the house and comes inside as well.”

This is the seventh project for this client by Greer and his partner Andrew Halliday. Greer is an architect by training; Halliday is a designer and former actor on the London stage. They both have exquisite taste; here, the pair took on the role of consulting designers for all interiors.

“Our design intent is to want things to be timeless, not designed toward trends,” Greer says. “It’s a blend of classic, modern, and contemporary. We try to create a space where you do it right the first time and never do it again.” That’s an attitude shared by all the designers for this house in the most exclusive neighborhood in the Hamptons.

And it paid off in spades. On approach from the bay side, views shoot straight through, out to the ocean. From the interior, the eye is drawn back toward the bay, the driveway hidden from sight. “It’s an optical illusion,” Makoid says. “You only see the water and the sun.”

That’s no accident. Rather, it’s one more heroic gesture from a team of architects, landscape architects, and interior designers, all aimed at aligning this home with its site.

A family of five’s new home on Long Island, with interiors that took nine months from start to finish, opened its doors just as its newest member arrived. “Our client moved in the week they had their third child—a sweet baby girl,” says interior designer Monica Fried of the New York firm that bears her name. The clients wanted a home that would grow with their family, but that didn’t feel like it was built for three children. Instead, they sought to strike a balance between luxury, style, and the younger set.

The thirty-something couple first turned to architects at Mojo Stumer Associates, who sited the home carefully on a cul de sac at the edge of a golf course, then screened it so it’s barely noticeable. That was a deliberate gesture, since this family cares about its privacy. “It’s a big home, but we’re under-the-radar people,” the client says. “On the outside, you’re not sure what to expect when you pull up—it looks traditional, but inside it’s so modern.”

That’s because interior designer Fried, who was called in when Jon Bijari Custom Homes was halfway through the project, understood how to close the gap between conservative and contemporary. Her clients wanted interiors that were transitional, modern, and clean, but in no way trendy. “She gave us four or five choices for everything, and I loved each one,” the client says. “It’s smart and warm—and it just works.”

Fried says the design process was a two-way street, with clients who gave her freedom to present the best possible ideas. Their directive was to be timeless, to be young-feeling and to be modern, and in 15 to 20 years, to be still relevant.

Toward that end, she worked with the builder and clients on material finishes like white oak paneling for gallery walls, travertine marble for entry floors, and onyx quartzite for kitchen counters. “The powder room has a marble, a beautiful Calcutta Viola, with fluted tile walls and a matching vanity,” Fried says. “The floors in the main living room are white oak, and the kitchen has tile floors, a dark granite.”

The oak-paneled front entry leads to a formal living space, with the dining room, kitchen, and family room flowing off that entry. Upstairs are five bedrooms and a large playroom. Below grade is a full basement, with a walkout to a swimming pool behind the house.

Fried chose subtle tones throughout the interior, with wood and stone that create depth and interest for each space she designed. “The homeowners are interested in collecting art, and the neutral tones give them more flexibility as their collection continues to evolve,” she says. “They’ve already acquired several contemporary pieces by Jacob Hashimoto and Orly Maiberg.”

The home is 7,500 square feet, so one of the designer’s challenges was to bring it down to human scale. “That’s one of our strengths—creating a warm environment in a large home,” she says. “And we create intimate spaces by using warm materials and window treatments to make it feel cozier.”

She sought out curated furnishings that were both functional and chic. The Brazilian lounge chairs by Jorge Zalszupin in the living room are excellent examples; they also offered a refined influence to help guide remaining selections. “There are some beautiful pieces that don’t feel like throwaways,” Fried says. “They feel really good, and are heirlooms in the making.”

Still, this is a house that’s designed to be home to three young children. It’s modern, to be sure, but it’s meant to be practical and super-livable, too. The designer used an abundance of indoor/outdoor materials for fabrics and rugs. Passing from the family room to the kitchen means moving through the living room—something that might have proven a challenge for any other designer anticipating children’s steps along the way. But not Fried.

She managed to make it childproof and stylish, while paying attention to her client’s tastes. “It can stand up to some wear and tear. but it’s elegant and feels more sophisticated too,” she says. “She has an elevated sense of style that we homed in on here—I chose an aesthetic with things she would react well to.”

That meant presenting some of her own favorites—Pierre Frey, Dedar, Mokum, and Crosby Street Studios—but focusing on finding durable and forgiving pieces that would work for a young family. “Nothing’s too precious here,” she says.

Her thoughtfulness wasn’t lost on the homemaker she collaborated with. “She can walk into a space and make it feel cool, and that you are important,” her client says. “She can bring in warmth so it’s doesn’t feel like a museum.” That’s because Fried knew from the start that this would be a forever home for a family of five.

Limited by neighbors and traffic on three sides, a new home on San Francisco Bay opens up on its fourth to spectacular waterfront views. Federico Engel, principal in Butler Armsden Architects, skipped the windows where the home faces those beside it. He gave it privacy on a streetside entry that’s packed with people and cars. Then he directed the eye from the front door through a courtyard and living area to bayfront vistas. “It needed privacy at the front, and action at the back,” he says.

Engel kicked off the design and construction by tearing down a 1965 Midcentury Modern with a fatal flaw. The site was an infill lot mired in mud from the bay. “That doesn’t lead to the best foundation,” he says. “The home had settled beyond repair, and we had to take it down.” 

In its place is a two-story, 3,500-square-foot masterpiece that’s an ode to both transparency and opacity. Started in 2019, its construction endured supply-chain challenges provided by the pandemic and took 28 months to build. It was finished in February 2022. The client is a Scandinavian whose family’s in the shipping business. 

He has a wife and two children—and a passion for developing properties around the world. In the States, he has homes in Montana, Southern California, and another that looks down to San Francisco. This home, though, is on Belvedere Island in Marin County, between Sausalito and Tiburon. It offers the area’s Mediterranean climate, but its high winds have to be dealt with too. 

Here, the types of houses that are most successful are either L-shaped or courtyard-based. “This one’s laid out in a courtyard way, so it’s protected from the winds but still has the views,” Engel says. “On windy afternoons you need a protected area, so the interior courtyard is an outdoor sitting room.” The courtyard is essentially a sculpture garden with low sofas, chunky rugs, and leather sling lounge chairs.

And the overall design reflects the textures of the site, with water glass, clouds, and landscaping. “I was trying to reiterate the emotional quality of late afternoon on the water at the end of the day—reflection, shimmer, back-lit shapes, and a quiet mood,” he says. A series of connected rooms all look out to the bay and blur the indoor/outdoor boundaries for different weather and environmental conditions. 

“On a super-nice morning you could be outside looking at the views, or in the courtyard, depending on the weather,” he says. “All provide different experiences but relatively unobstructed views.” His material palette here is simplicity itself. He used two types of Portuguese limestone—a gray/blue for the floors, and light green for the walls. He started out with the intent of using cedar for cladding out front, but strong demand and high supply-chain pricing pointed him in another direction.

He substituted another product called Thermory—a heat-treated natural hemlock. All its moisture’s been removed, and it offers a resistance to harsh exterior conditions. “It’s the same light color as cedar, with the same warmth that balances the limestone,” he says. “It came to us pretreated with that honey/amber color, and we sealed it to preserve that, but it will gray out eventually.” 

For furniture, textures, and artwork, Engel turned to Sabra Ballon, principal in ballonSTUDIO, a veteran collaborator with Butler Armsden. She’s an interior designer with a master’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, so she was aligned with what Engel sought to achieve. And she listened closely to the client. “There’s a Scandinavian aesthetic in the way he was brought up, which was very pure,” she says. “So we used leather, wool, cotton, and stone in very straightforward ways.”

She eliminated veneers for all the furniture—every piece is solid wood, even a bowl carved from a single chunk. “There’s a minimalism, and the building comes first—the furniture is there to sit on, and it’s a continuation of the architecture.”

The bedrooms upstairs are small, with a built-in desk for each child, along with a bed and trundle for sleepovers. “It’s like a cruise ship up there—with only enough room to come out and tiptoe around,” she says. “And there’s a sliding partition that can open up or close off the bedrooms.”

In the primary bedroom, the clients’ bed faces the water, so the designer added a dresser on the back side of the headboard, with bedside tables too. There’s room for one chair with wool upholstery and one table. In that bedroom and the family room, the designers eschewed framed art, and opted for art-like textiles on the walls instead.

“There aren’t a lot of tiny pieces, but larger rugs providing color, pattern, and a focal point, but not ‘Look at me!’” she says. After all, it’s the views of the bay that beckon.