Architect Stuart Disston got into the passenger seat of his client’s Range Rover and she got behind the wheel and off they went through the streets of Palm Beach. “It was our way of doing the research into the kind of house she and her husband wanted to build,” says Disston from his Connecticut office. “We looked at all the classic Palm Beach [Addison] Mizner houses. It was like learning a language, an architectural language.” He and his client soon became fluent in the grammar of Palm Beach architecture, with its many houses that reflect an amalgam of Mediterranean and classical styles.
Disston adopted one of the main features that characterize the great houses in town: asymmetry. Many of Mizner’s houses, and those by his contemporaries in the 1920s and 30s, as well as some present-day practitioners, include multiple wings and projections, recesses and loggias, archways and varying levels.
“Houses like this that are more asymmetrical are also more romantic,” says Disston. “This house harkens to ancient Classical Roman and Greek forms, and it has a strong geometry.”
Landscape designer Keith Williams of Nievera Williams Design, also possesses, as he says, “a love of geometry.” He exercised his penchant most notably at the front, with a series of diagonals and lines. Limestone pavers are inlayed with grass strips that demarcate and define the geometric forms. “The client and I wanted to signify the main entrance,” he says from his West Palm Beach studio. Because the house has such a striking architectural presence, Williams designed low garden walls at the front so as to not obscure any of the architecture. “The client wanted to use as much native plant material as possible, and that is what we put there—hedges, too, that also attract butterflies, which is also something she wanted.”
Landscape designer Keith Williams created a visual rhythm at the home’s entrance by interspersing limestone pavers with diagonally placed strips of grass. The motif heightens the presence of the house on its street.
The elements of the Cassiopeia Chandelier, in pewter, from Ironware International, appear to be in orbit in the main living area. Designers Lavinia Lemon and Megan Stinson used a variety of blues and aquas, hues that emerge to full effect in bright Florida light.
The breakfast nook is always filled with cheerful sunlight. A Dennis & Leen Criss Cross Table with a walnut top fills the windowed area, which requires no draperies or shades. The upholstered chairs are from Hollywood at Home.
Urban Electric’s Chisholm Clean Hanging Lantern, which is accented with Farrow & Balls’s Green Blue No. 84, lights the way along the main hallway. The floor and ceiling patterns echo each other.
Walls in the primary bedroom are a soothing blue, which complements coral hues on the bed and in the draperies. Architect Stuart Disston created a novel window at the center of the room to bring in additional light and as a permanent decorative element.
One side of the primary suite features a pair of blue armchairs, along with an ottoman that doubles as a coffee table.
Williams introduced “waterfalls” of bougainvillea throughout the property. An Urban Electric lantern with a bronze powder-coat finish provides a lovely glow in the evening within the vaulted loggia.
At the rear of the house, landscape architect Keith Williams created a series of natural vertical elements, to both visual and colorful effect. The paving patterns mirror those at the front of the house.
A variety of seating arrangements take in views of the lap pool and lawn at a new Palm Beach residence. CB2 Idle White outdoor Sun Loungers are each accented with pillows from Christopher Farr. The dining tables are set with McKinnon & Harris’s weather-resistant lattice-back Otey chairs.
For the rear, Williams outlines three directives he was given from the client husband. “He wanted a pool to swim in, he wanted a big lawn, and he wanted places for their outdoor sculptures with good sightlines.” Williams and a curator worked to cleverly position artworks on the grounds, as well as within the house. Bougainvillea drapes from loggia columns to appear, as Williams says so poetically, “like waterfalls cascading to the ground.”
As for the inside, it was the task of Washington, D.C.–based designers Lavinia Lemon and Megan Stinson, who have worked with their clients on three other residences, to furnish the rooms. “We picked furnishings that are especially pretty in the Florida light,” Lemon says. One end of the open-plan living room features an alluring custom aqua sofa, balanced by chairs upholstered in a striped fabric of similar hue. “That sofa and the large lighting fixture were our starting points for that room,” says Lemon.
Because the homeowner loves shades of coral and pale blues, Lemon used them to abundance in the primary suite. The area with the bed and one of two entrances to a balcony/terrace skew coral pink, while the opposite side of the room, which contains a seating area and another entrance to the outdoor area, embraces shades of blue. “It makes a very peaceful feel in the room,” says Lemon of the color choices and combinations.
While color is important to the house, so, too, is an overall neutral palette, and when colors are used on walls, they remain subtle. “They have a fantastic art collection,” says Lemon, “and they wanted walls and backdrops that allowed for the art to stand out.”
Unlike many houses in town, no matter how distinguished their architecture, this one does not wish to hide behind hedges or groves of palm trees. Disston and Williams ensured that the house would remain visible and admired. While the house is new, many plantings appear quite mature. Williams used well-grown palms throughout the property. “I don’t have much patience,” he says. “We saved a few existing palms, but we wanted a finished look as soon as the house was done.”