2005 PALLADIO AWARDS
RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE:
NEW DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION – UNDER 5,000 SQ.FT.
WINNER: COOPER JOHNSON SMITH ARCHITECTS
St. Augustine on the Beach
Project: Beach house, Rosemary Beach, FL
Architect: Cooper Johnson Smith Architects, Tampa, FL; Jason Dunham, project architect
General Contractor: Elliott Construction, Seaside, FL; Burrell Elliott, general contractor
On a small corner lot in Rosemary Beach, FL, an updated version of a St. Augustine-inspired house sits. Designed by Tampa, FL-based Cooper Johnson Smith Architects, the beach house, although carefully regulated by the codes of the New Urbanist development, is a unique contribution to the town.
Cooper Johnson Smith Architects of Tampa, FL, designed this 3,740-sq.ft. beach house in Rosemary Beach, FL, inspired by the architecture of St. Augustine, to fit in with its Anglo-Caribbean neighbors. All photos: George Cott
“The Rosemary Beach code is the main influence, source and starting point of any house in the town,” says Jason Dunham, project architect with the firm. In addition to prescribing an Anglo-Caribbean style throughout, the code also dictates vertical window proportions, building position on the lot, amount of porches on the street frontage and more. “The Anglo-Caribbean style is a hybrid of architecture in the old South and the Colonial British West Indies, which is a hybrid
in and of itself,” explains Dunham. “The result is a mix of local and imposed culture.” One of the precedents recommended for architects designing new houses for Rosemary Beach is the architecture of St. Augustine. “It’s unique, while at the same time coincides with the Anglo-Caribbean style,” he says. It’s a combination of Spanish Colonial architecture, with its heavy masonry forms, and of British architecture, with lighter wooden structures usually built on top of the
Spanish buildings. The clients did not dictate the style as they were familiar with the firm’s work in Seaside, FL, and felt comfortable with the architects’ discretion.
The goal of building in Rosemary Beach is to produce a house that “behaves urbanistically,” says Dunham. “The original houses here were designed more simply and in a more pure form,” he says. “Over the years, the houses started to become more complicated and attention grabbing. This house was designed during a later phase, so I could respond to what was happening. One of biggest goals in designing this house was returning to the simple forms and elegance of the
Anglo-Caribbean language prescribed in the Rosemary Beach code, and to take its place as a background building instead of competing with the civic elements of the town.” At 3,740 sq.ft., the house is decidedly smaller than many.
In accordance with its style, the house has a white stuccoed masonry base, with slightly tapered masonry columns supporting a finely-detailed wood board-and-batten second floor and a steeply-pitched (10:12) corrugated metal roof, which features lunette clerestory windows in the small gable ends extending from the ridge of the singular hip roof. Two wood-louvered sleeping porches on the second floor, built by Craig Caudill of Classic Woodcrafters, frame a formal double-height
entry on the more public street, with wood brackets forming an arch. “These porches offer privacy from the vehicular street that they face,” says Dunham. Wood cut-outs, mimicking a symbol commonly found in St. Augustine, on the vertical plank railings pay homage to the high level of craftsmanship and local culture. On the façade facing the boardwalk, a two-story open porch functions as a more casual entrance to the house. This arrangement satisfies the Rosemary Beach code,
which encourages interaction with neighbors. The concrete porch floors, along with the exterior concrete stairs and the concrete bench seats, were stained with Chemico by artisan Jeannie Grier of Masterpiece Group, using a Malay Tan and Cola color mixture.
Sited on a corner lot, the architects had to come up with a solution to having a vehicular street on one side and a boardwalk on the other. The two-story porch wraps around the boardwalk façade and the street façade, except for a break in the second floor to give prominence to the point of entry.
The corner lot presented a challenge to the architects, who had to consider orientation for both the vehicular street and the boardwalk. “Most houses in Rosemary Beach have their front doors on the boardwalk,” says Dunham, “with direct access to the beach.” Because of the corner, the architects had to create a dual entry house. They put the more formal entry on the vehicular street, and a secondary entry on the boardwalk.
Another challenge was the Rosemary Beach Landscape Code. “Any native species ruined during construction had to be replanted. In working with the landscape contractor we had to use a native palette, which is unusual in new developments.” Rosemary Beach has a strict landscape code, which emphasizes the importance of preserving the natural landscape. “This not only keeps the community rooted in its past but also creates a unique identity for the community and sustains the
environment,” says Dunham. The sand dunes and associated vegetation help to protect the seashore and the community from erosion and rising waters.
Drainage on the site also required an inventive solution. Rosemary Beach prefers for water to drain beneath the houses. “Because of the sandiness of the site,” says Dunham, “the water percolates very quickly and won’t sit under the house. Typically, one drains water away from a house toward a street, but because of the nature of the soil, this works.” To address this problem, the architects designed perforations at the base of the house, “little half-circle openings” with
metal grilles that allow water to move under the house.
The U-shaped house, oriented toward the west, allowed for 1,500 sq.ft. of porches and loggias, although, at the clients’ request, the center of the U is filled in on the first floor. “The client wanted larger spaces. To address the loss of open space in the center of the U shape, says Dunham, “the kitchen was moved there, but still maintains its openness with a gallery of windows, almost like a glass wall, to allow plenty of light into the center of the house, which is one
of the advantages of the St. Augustine plan.” On the second floor, the open space remains with a loggia that is “carved into the house,” he adds, allowing for private outdoor space between the master bedroom and office on either side of the loggia. “Every inch of outdoor space is economically utilized as intimate courts and gardens,” he says, including a fountain court outside the kitchen and a garden court against Tucker’s Lane, a rear alley, with an arbor framing an
outdoor Rumford fireplace with a Superior Clay chimney.
On the ground floor, both entryways open into a Great Room, with the dining room in the south wing with French doors opening onto an outdoor dining court in the side yard. The flooring on the ground floor is composed of travertine tile “to better tolerate sandy feet.” The northern wing has a guest bedroom and bathroom on the other side of the kitchen. A stairway wraps around a fireplace, separating the public Great Room from the private guestroom. Powder and mud rooms are
beneath the stair.
On the second floor, the master bedroom and a child’s bedroom occupy the southern and northern wings. In between, a library hall leads from the stair to the outdoor loggia, which can also be accessed from the master bedroom and a private office. The attic, which features heavy wood brackets supporting a vaulted ceiling, is comprised of a playroom with a built-in desk, kitchenette and bathroom to serve as a guest suite when needed, with two sleeping alcoves “tucked away” into
the space created by the dormers.
“These have been some our best clients, and combined with an excellent contractor, were instrumental in making the needed adjustments during construction to maintain the design integrity from drawing to reality,” says Dunham. This sort of collaboration allowed the architects to produce an exceptional house while working within a stringent design code.
Read ArchitectureWeek's coverage of the 2005 Palladio Awards here.
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