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Atelier NorthSarasota · Design-Build
Harbor House concept project — A closed 1970s waterfront plan reopened toward the bay it had turned its back on.

Whole Home · Bird Key, Sarasota · 2025

Harbor House

Project brief

A closed 1970s waterfront plan reopened toward the bay it had turned its back on.

Concept work. This project is a fictional portfolio concept — the client, location detail, ranges, and results are invented to illustrate how the studio works.

The owners had lived in the house for eleven years and used roughly half of it. Rooms were sized for formality nobody practiced, the water view was rationed through small punched openings, and the primary suite faced the street. The brief was to keep the footprint and the live oaks, and to reorganise everything else around two people who cook, swim, and work from home.

Location
Bird Key, Sarasota
Scope
4,180 sq ft whole-home renovation, new loggia, dock-side terrace
Concept investment
Concept range: $1.6M – $1.9M
Duration
19 months, design through completion

The design challenge

The bay elevation carried the roof structure, so the wall could not simply be glazed. Flood elevation also meant the existing slab sat lower than current requirements for habitable improvements at this scale, and the mature oak canopy ruled out staging equipment on the west side of the property.

The solution

We moved the load path into a pair of concealed steel frames set inside new limestone-clad piers, which let the bay wall become full-height glass between them. A raised interior datum absorbs the elevation change as a shallow three-step transition rather than a ramp, and the primary suite was relocated to the water side by swapping it with the underused formal dining room. Deep loggia overhangs do the shading work that tint and blinds were doing badly.

Material palette

What the house is made of

  • Coquina-tone limestone

    Honed, 24-inch modular cladding at piers and terrace

  • Rift-sawn white oak

    Millwork, ceiling battens, and interior door leaves

  • Olive-gray lime plaster

    Hand-troweled, used at fireplace mass and the entry wall

  • Blackened steel

    Window frames, stair stringers, and hearth surround

  • Gallery-white plaster

    Primary wall finish throughout the interior

Hover or focus a material to read its specification note.

Annotated gallery

Harbor House in detail

  • Bay elevation of the renovated Harbor House with cedar screens and a standing-seam roof
    01Bay elevation. Limestone piers carry the roof, freeing the wall between them for full-height glass.
  • Open living room with pale oak floors, plaster walls, and a wide opening to the water
    02The 41-foot living space replaced a formal dining room, a sitting room, and the corridor between them.
  • Close-up of a cedar louvered screen meeting plaster and a limestone sill
    03Operable cedar screens temper afternoon west light without closing the room down.
  • Material samples: oak, cedar, limestone, olive plaster, brass, and linen
    04The working palette, reviewed on site under real daylight before specification.

Plan diagram — Harbor House

Schematic after plan diagram for Harbor HouseOPEN LIVINGNEW VOLUMETERRACE

Schematic diagram, not a construction drawing. Concept illustration only.

  • After
  • Single living volume across the bay frontage
  • Primary suite relocated to the water elevation
  • Kitchen open to living, with a service pantry behind
  • Full-height glazing between three limestone piers

Results

What changed

  • Bay-facing glazing increased roughly fourfold with no increase in cooling load, per the concept energy model
  • Primary suite relocated to the water elevation without enlarging the footprint
  • Formal dining and a redundant sitting room absorbed into one 41-foot living space
  • All new impact glazing, roof assembly, and mechanical systems