A Translation: From the Caribbean to Rosemary Beach

Overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, a residence influenced by the grand plantation houses of the Caribbean sits in the New Urbanist resort town of Rosemary Beach, FL. Minimally ornamented on the exterior, the Malugen House fits perfectly with its neighbors, while making a unique statement through a subtle mix of color and texture from its white stucco walls and dark stained timberwork.

The $1.2 million, 5,976-sq.ft. house, completed in January 2002, was constructed “to withstand the ferocious Gulf Coast hurricanes with concrete-reinforced masonry block walls and wood truss roof and floor framing,” explains architect Eric Watson. The house features four formed-concrete gable parapets crowned with spherical cast-concrete finials, timber porches, tall wood sash windows and mahogany French doors and shutters.

The interior has tall pine timber ceilings, black-iron chandeliers, bead-board paneled walls and custom-made three-panel interior doors painted black. The foyer floor is composed of black granite and travertine tile arranged in a geometric pattern that recalls the three divisions of the entry porch. There is a double living room, a dining room, five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, nine covered porches and a courtyard garden with a circle terrace paved in a checkerboard pattern of handmade Cuban tile. A detached garage with guest quarters above is constructed with concrete block on the first floor and a wood frame clad with western red cedar siding on the second. The change of materials on the garage/guesthouse contrasts with the main house, reinforcing its “reading as a secondary structure,” explains Watson. The guesthouse has a living/dining room, bedroom, bathroom and two covered balconies.

The design for this house survived through three clients. “The initial client requested a large gracious home, but didn’t have a strong idea of what it should look like or what materials should be used. That client sold the lot with the plans, which were sold once more. The property became more and more valuable and the design remained intact,” says Watson. In designing this house, the architect was interested in achieving the feel of a Barbadian sugar plantation house he had visited a few years before: “That house used simple yet durable materials, clearly defined architectural massing and spacious interior volumes.” Watson arranged the plan of the house in a clear “bookend” diagram that resulted in bold massing and a simple roof shape. “The bookend diagram was chosen, because it fit with the owner’s program requirements of four first-floor guest bedrooms with the principal living rooms and the master bedroom on the second floor,” he says. The space was divided into thirds, arranging the primary rooms with maximum frontal exposure and locating the secondary rooms such as the foyer, stair hall and kitchen within the center. The dining room is given special emphasis, located above the entry, where the room captures a view of the Gulf of Mexico from its projecting bay window.

Another provision of the design involved the town in which it was sited. Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, the town planners of Rosemary Beach, created an architectural design code to encourage the use and application of elements found in the traditional architecture of the Caribbean to Florida’s Gulf Coast. The code encourages the use of authentic materials and elements like cantilevered balconies, smooth stucco exterior walls, wood sash windows, metal roofs, cedar shingles and decorative brackets. “These materials and elements,” explains Watson, “offer an authentic patina over time. For instance, the concrete stucco on the Malugen house will eventually develop small cracks.”

The new construction was influenced by Rosemary Beach’s design code in other ways as well. “The principal design challenge of the Malugen House,” says Watson, “was the translation of the traditional architectural style of the Caribbean to the Neotraditional style of Rosemary Beach.” Privacy is an issue in the town since lot sizes are relatively small and public spaces are emphasized. “My strategy was to arrange the rooms, porches and garden areas to maximize the best views possible, while providing a measure of privacy from the neighbors.” Each bedroom, for instance, has its own porch, which functions as a transition space between the public and the private. The porches of front-facing bedrooms, facing the public boardwalk, are enclosed with louvered panels that can be opened.

Materials were chosen that were consistent with the Caribbean architectural style. The smooth stucco exterior is painted white, contrasting with the dark-green stained porch timbers and other exterior woodwork. “The exterior ornamentation was minimized in favor of expressing the inherent visual qualities, textures and characteristics of the durable and authentic materials chosen,” says Watson. The shaped gable parapets, on the front and rear façades, are crowned with spherical finials, “recalling the decorative parapets found in much Caribbean architecture,” he adds. The roof is clad with corrugated metal.

The south façade showcases the house’s decorative timber-framed porches and timber rafter tails. Masonry piers are used on the lower porches to emphasize a heavier “base” reading for the house, with lighter timber posts topped with decorative carved brackets on the porches above. “Because the house has little masonry ornament or detail, the exterior wood elements introduce detail and texture – for instance, the shaped ends of the porch beams and the sawtooth ends of the vertical siding on the porch gable ends. The dark stained wood contrasts with the white stucco walls,” says Watson. Both the shutters and the garden gates were fabricated in mahogany, tying these features to the finer detailing of the French doors. The masonry garden walls are accented with rough-sawn cedar slats. Twin gas lanterns, fabricated by New Orleans, LA-based Bevolo Gas & Electric Lights, adorn the courtyard terrace. “The exterior lighting was inspired by New Orleans’ French Quarter, which is another source the town planners looked to for its spectacular courtyard gardens,” says Watson. At the lane at the rear, a shower pavilion anchors the base of an exterior stairway leading to the guesthouse. On the north façade, the “symmetrical window arrangement is reflective of the floor plan.”

On the first floor, four identical guest bedrooms, each with its own porch, bookend the center circulation and entry zone. On the lower porches, 1-ft. square handmade black and white Cuban tile is laid in a checkerboard pattern, “a hint of Caribbean atmosphere and materials,” explains Watson. Thickened property walls along the lane enclose the exterior stairway, shower pavilion and mechanical areas, while defining the courtyard garden between the house and the garage. “The walls are a secondary sculptural element reflective of the shaped gable parapets. The walls anchor and provide mass to the exterior stair,” he says. Painted 1x6-in. double bead-board walls accent the foyer, along with its unique flooring. Custom black painted three-panel interior doors complement the black iron spindles and black painted wood handrail on the staircase.

Most of the colors of the interior walls are monolithic to highlight the beamed ceilings and the owner’s eclectic collection of art and antiques. “The walls are off-white, the trim a khaki color. The interior designer, Susan Massey, did a great job,” says Watson. The primary rooms on the second floor include the living room, dining room and master bedroom, all of which feature dynamic ceiling treatments and open onto wide, covered porches. The living room and master bedroom, whose entrances are emphasized by thick-walled grand archways that flank the upper stair hall, feature 13-ft.-tall ceilings, with 4-in. dark-stained quartersawn white oak flooring. Ponderosa pine double-hung sash windows are painted off-white, while custom mahogany French doors and transoms are black. “Black was used to emphasize the tall doors,” says Watson. Black is again used for the fireplace mantel and slate surround, the door hardware, iron chandeliers and sconces.

A kitchen and dining room, each with projecting bays that allow a long view of the beach, are positioned in the center of the house. Because of their positioning, these rooms were given vaulted ceilings emphasized with bold colors. The dining room ceiling is painted apple green and features an antique ivory chandelier. French doors link the room to the outdoors, as do the double-hung sash windows in the projecting bay. The walls of both the kitchen and dining room are 1x6-in. double bead-board paneling painted a neutral off-white, echoing the foyer and giving an informal texture to the rooms. In the kitchen, black granite countertops and high-gloss, tomato-red-painted, custom-designed cabinetry with bracketed glass upper compartments, color matched to the ceiling, highlight the stainless-steel appliances. Cabinet knobs were fabricated from black glass, and the ceiling is similarly colored to the cabinets.

Prominently located in the town, the Malugen house is appropriately reflective of some of the fine Caribbean houses after which the community was planned. Eric Watson built an exemplary house with the details, materials and forms of traditional Caribbean architecture and the feel of Rosemary Beach.
– Marieke Cassia Gartner

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