Photos by Steven Brooke and Barbara Banks
Feature: Out of the Blue
July 2, 2004
Throughout the house, a palette of soft grays and whites tinges the walls,
creating the perfect backdrop for the perpetually performing sea and sky.
Matching gray mica cabinetry in the kitchen, baths and bedrooms, both upstairs
and down, contrasts quietly with the changing blue world outside. The
counterpoint is intentional. As Peterson says, “The house has a minimalist
quality that doesn’t compete with the natural setting.”
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Expanses of glass give the couple an uninterrupted view of the ocean. (Click image to enlarge)Standing sentry at
the entrance to the kitchen is a geometrically patterned ceramic floor vase by
Jeffrey Patterson with proportions that resemble a headed torso. Travertine marble covers the
floors. Gray granite countertops complement the cabinetry, stainless steel
appliances and chrome drawer pulls—whimsical squiggles that reinforce the home’s
abstract air but soften its geometry. “The house is designed around the pulls,”
Hadassa says. Another brightly colored ceramic vase, this one from Sedona, rests
on the kitchen counter, keeping company with the floor vase. It is as if each
room of the house, the kitchen included, is designed with art in mind—natural or
man-made.
But the living room, framed with expansive floor-to-ceiling
windows, offers the most drama. High-hued abstract paintings of deep purples and
glowing pinks accent the white walls, reflecting Hadassa’s love of all things
bold and geometric. A deep travertine window ledge serves as a pedestal for
African masks. “Simple and striking” is her motto, she says—that and her zeal to
fill her home with what she calls “cultural elements,” which include a
wall-mounted oxen yoke from Portugal and a pair of garden gates from India that
become sculpture in their own right, items that add visual texture to the
otherwise streamlined space.
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Peterson introduced a wall of glass block that allows light from the central
atrium to penetrate the second-floor master bedroom suite. (Click image to enlarge)Beyond the living room, wild sea oats, dune
daisies and ornamental grasses grow in marked contrast to the ceremonial air of
the Zen garden. A winding wooden deck follows the contours of the sand and sea,
leading to stairs that deliver the homeowners to nature’s doorstep.
Which is
what the Morris house is all about.
Guy Peterson
Office for Architecture Inc.
941.952.1111
David W. Young
PA, Landscape Architects
941.365.6530
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