Laurence and Molly Austin had a good idea about what they wanted in the vacation home they’re building on the North End of Palm Beach.
“We wanted to build an elegant home, but we also wanted it to fit a ‘beachy,’ relaxed lifestyle,” explains Laurence Austin, an investment executive from Greenwich, Conn., who plays polo in Wellington and is building his first house in Palm Beach.
And that’s why the British West Indies architectural style appealed to the couple, who hope to start a family soon and spend more time in Palm Beach. Their home, under construction on Nightingale Trail, is designed to be sophisticated but also light-filled and comfortable, with elements common to the traditional architecture built by the English in their Caribbean territories beginning in the late 18th century.
The design includes symmetrical facades with stucco-clad exteriors, gracefully proportioned rooms, and extensive woodwork and moldings. The front door is flanked by sidelights, and traditional double-hung windows have exterior shutters. Architectural elements — including a front porch with curved wood brackets that support a second-floor balcony — provide shade from the subtropical sun. At the rear, a bank of glass doors opens onto a covered rear loggia with a broad terrace above it. And the twin chimneys have their own pitched roofs — a design that keeps out rain.
New wave of island influence
Designed by architect Daniel Kahan, a partner with Smith and Moore Architects, the Austins’ house is part of a Palm Beach trend toward new homes in the British West Indies style, itself an offshoot of the broader British Colonial style. When completed, their house will be part of Palm Beach’s new wave of island-influenced architecture with historical roots in Bermuda and the British and Dutch West Indies.
Especially popular on the more-diverse and less-expensive North End but found throughout Palm Beach, the houses have been built both as custom homes for specific clients or on “spec” by builders for sale on the open market. The style was highlighted last season when a 20,000-square-foot British Colonial-style custom home that Kahan designed on the South End won him the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach’s Schuler Award honoring new construction.
“We have six custom homes under construction on the island, and they are predominantly Caribbean in style,” says Paul Wittmann of Wittmann Building Corp., who is constructing the Austins’ home and two others in similar styles on the same street.
Across town, Wittmann also has developed a $26 million, 11,000-square-foot Bermuda-style spec home, designed by Michael Perry of MPerry Design & Architecture, on Banyan Road with a tunnel underneath South Ocean Boulevard to the beach. The price includes the furnishings.
Meanwhile over the past year, at least four never-lived-in Palm Beach homes with Caribbean-inspired architecture sold in Palm Beach, developed separately by David Frisbie, Malasky Homes and George Ford of Leeds Construction in conjunction with Lee Gordon and his late father, Bob. Their prices ranged from $4.75 million to nearly $10 million, according to property records.
Renewed popularity
The architectural style and its cousins have longtime roots in Palm Beach, pioneered in the mid-1920s by architect Howard Major with his Major Alley development on Peruvian Avenue, built as a reaction to what he saw as Mizner’s geographically inappropriate and visually excessive Mediterranean mansions.
Gustav Maass, John Volk and Belford Shoumate were other noted architects who built homes here from the 1930s on that reflected the climate-sensitive colonial architecture of the Caribbean islands and Bermuda.
With their simple lines and tailored designs, those houses represented a striking departure from the imposing Mediterranean Revival style that today is so often associated with the town’s architectural character and which, for the past quarter-century, has been the driving force in new construction in Palm Beach.
“We’ve been building in Palm Beach for 20 years, and up until the last five years, Mediterranean was definitely the style of homes we built,” Wittmann explains. “That’s definitely changed. Of the three homes we’re building on Nightingale, all are either British Colonial or Dutch Colonial.”
The renewed popularity of the British West Indies style reflects the evolving tastes of some Palm Beachers, who are looking for traditionally styled houses suited to a less-formal lifestyle, according to architects, builders and real estate professionals.
Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate is among the Palm Beach brokers and agents who note that the style is seeing an upswing among his buyers.
“We’re always going to have that Northerner who is drawn to the wonderful South Florida Mediterranean. And they’re still a strong sector. But we’re seeing a strong interest in the British Colonial and British West Indies style,” says Angle.
He adds that he sold two lots last season — a lakefront property in Palm Beach and another waterfront parcel in Manalapan — to buyers who are considering building West Indies-style homes.
The recent interest in the style also may reflect a psychological and fiscal response by homeowners to the tightened economic times that accompanied the bust of the nation’s real estate bubble. Caribbean-inspired houses typically cost less to build than their Mediterranean-style counterparts because of their relatively simple construction techniques and less-elaborate decorative details: They tend to feature wood details, extensive millwork and classical moldings rather than the intricate stone carving and metalwork embellishments found on homes inspired by Spanish or Italian architecture.
And just as the simpler, small-scale homes that appeared in Palm Beach during the Great Depression and the years that followed reflected a bricks-and-mortar reaction to the elaborate, oversize mansions of the Roaring ’20s, the popularity today of more traditional architecture may be a signal that at least some homeowners have begun to seek comfort and livability in less-exotic packages.
Visually dramatic
Angle says Anglo Caribbean-style homes may not be as visually dramatic as other styles, but the best examples still offer a level of sophistication that appeals to many Palm Beachers.
“These homes have simple lines and elegant finishes. It’s a style that puts pressure on the builder and the architect to deliver that same ‘wow’ factor when working with less,” says Angle. “It takes a lot to deliver a simple, refined elegance. But there are a lot of quality architects out there who are really capturing that.”
It’s also important to remember that Palm Beach is a resort community, adds architect Richard Sammons of Sammons & Fairfax Architects, a firm that specializes in homes with designs based on classical forms. Vacation-home owners in Palm Beach, he notes, have always wanted houses that differ in appearance from those they own elsewhere, and the British Colonial style fits that requirement without seeming too far out of the box.
As Sammons says: “They want to feel like they’re somewhere else, but they don’t necessarily want to feel like they’re in a different culture.”
An adaptable style
Architect Kahan, who has extensively studied British Colonial- and related Caribbean-style architecture, says the style has adapted well in Palm Beach, largely because of the town’s subtropical climate that mimics that of the nearby islands, where ocean breezes and lavish views are a part of daily life.
The style, Kahan notes, offers several characteristics that appeal to today’s homeowners. They often want plenty of natural light in their homes along with floor plans that allow rooms to flow easily from one to another. The latter is an especially important consideration in the layout of the kitchen, breakfast area and family room, which are often the hub of the household, he adds.
“In the North End, we’ve designed a number of houses for young families coming into Palm Beach, and they find that a formal Mediterranean house may not suit what they’re looking for on a day-to-day basis. They’re not throwing large parties and that sort of thing. They’re looking for more of a family house,” Kahan says.
“British Colonial is a little more casual — or it can be — and the spaces can be a little more open. Not every Mediterranean is formal, but in the original architecture, you’re usually talking about larger, more formal spaces, smaller openings and smaller windows.”
Those smaller windows and openings — typically set into thick masonry walls — originated in pre-air-conditioned times to keep rooms cooler by limiting the amount of natural light that entered, a key consideration in dry Mediterranean climates where the sun can be harsh.
In British Colonial- and Caribbean-style homes, on the other hand, substantial load-bearing masonry walls aren’t part of the architectural language, so architects can readily open up the interiors without compromising the style’s integrity. And because the original architecture was designed to capture ocean breezes through cross-ventilation, windows and French doors can easily be added or expanded, notes architect Jeffery W. Smith of Smith Architectural Group and chairman of Palm Beach’s Architectural Review Commission.
“With Mediterranean, it’s hard to get great expanses of glass, but in British Colonial you can,” Smith says, adding that British Colonial-style homes can offer plenty of charm. “They’re calming. They easily accept color. I think they’re cheering. And they’re easy to open up.”
Architect Roger Janssen of Dailey Janssen Architect has designed a number of homes in styles rooted in the Caribbean, including a new Dutch Colonial-style house on Brazilian Avenue that sold last season. He notes that the architecture of the colonial West Indies can provide a welcome solution for homeowners who want a contemporary layout but don’t want a home with a slick, modern exterior.
“They’re looking for the functionality of a more modern design but they don’t necessarily like that (modern) aesthetic,” Janssen explains. “So we do a lot of extrapolating. It’s about reinterpreting a style while still honoring specific traditions of architecture. It’s a modern interpretation but with a good respect for tradition.”
Builder Wittmann says he expects to see interest grow in British West Indies and related architectural styles over the next few years. “As people come to Palm Beach, they’re seeing some good examples that have been done in the recent past. They see it as refreshing — sort of a change,” Wittmann says. “And it’s a very adaptable style.”
