This stunning oceanfront house designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects balances vernacular and high style Classicism, located in the small resort community of Seaside, Florida. The locale is known for its late-20th-century New Urbanist design, as well as pastel-colored houses featuring porches and white picket fences. The design of this 2,700 square foot beach house adheres to the town’s strict building codes, while establishing its own identity, “superimposed orders on the street facade and an unorthodox beachfront gable carried on a single Ionic column,” states the architects.
Due to site constraints, the architects designed a compact layout spread out over three levels. The aesthetics are that of a traditional urban townhouse, yet employs a side entryway through the garden. The children’s bedrooms were planned on the garden level, while the great room was designed on the second level with porches overlooking the ocean. The master bedroom suite encompasses the third level, featuring sweeping views of both the town and ocean. The interior architecture continues the simplified wooden Classicism, in perfect harmony with the exterior facade.
The west facade of this seaside home, which faces the town, was designed with superimposed orders to create a public scale (when successive stories of a building have different orders). “The oceanside porches are organized with stacked orders of fluted and inscribed Greek columns in antis culminating in a trussed and trellised roof supported by a single Ionic column which gives the house an iconic identity from the beach,” states the architects.
On the lower level, the siding is rusticated wood, which is meant to emulate stone, rising up to beveled clapboard at the upper levels. The culmination is a batten copper roof and an open rafter eave embellished with decorative caps. The overall effect is a balance of simplicity and sophistication.
What We Love: This wonderful seaside abode offers its inhabitants cozy living spaces to relax while enjoying the tranquility of the crashing waves. The classic architecture fits in with the home’s locale, offering a charming aesthetic that is warm and inviting. We are especially loving the master bedroom suite, from it’s cozy reading nook to it’s amazing third story views from a private balcony.
Readers, please share with us your overall thoughts on this beach house, would this be your vision of the perfect dream house? Why or why not in the comments below!
Photos: Courtesy of Robert A.M. Stern Architects
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