Home of the Month: Sensational Sundial

When Ellen Berman moved in 2007 to Sarasota, she assumed that, like many newcomers, she would buy a condo and try to make it work. But after putting a deposit down on an apartment in a high-rise downtown, her cousin Paula Hollins called. There was a house for sale in Hollins’ neighborhood, that colorful, eclectic slice of Sarasota just to the east of downtown. It wasn’t too pretty at the moment but it might be just the thing for Berman.

The outside certainly wasn’t much of a draw — just an ordinary, bland concrete home of no particular distinction, circa 1980. To make matters worse, it was in foreclosure and suffering from neglect. But once she entered the front door, Berman realized this was it. It had the layout she’d been looking for but thought she’d never find — a big living area with plenty of room for all her interests, including entertaining, displaying her art, playing Scrabble — she takes it seriously — and even an occasional live concert, such as the recent one in which clarinetist Evan Ziporyn performed during his residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. (Berman is a board member.)

The first thing Berman did was get her deposit on the condo back. Then she began to think about an architect. She knew the feeling she was going for but not how to get there. She needed a guide. And when she saw a residence called the Origami House featured in a local magazine, and saw that it was designed by Sarasota architect Jonathan Parks, she knew she had found just the right person.

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Though it has pretty much the same footprint as the original, the remodeled home is virtually a new structure. It has a new personality, too. Originally a home for a large family with many children, with small bedrooms and large areas for the kids to play in, the Berman house is now an ultra-sophisticated refuge. It’s luxurious in an understated way, and though it’s modern in style, it’s full of home-like touches.

“Most of all, it’s a happy house,” says Berman.

The heart of the home is the large, loft-like living area. It encompasses five different spaces, each a little different yet part of the whole. At the front is the “music room,” originally a front porch that was enclosed during renovations. Here sits a grand piano for live music, plus Berman’s all-important and ever-ready Scrabble game set up on a card table.

A double-sided fireplace separates the main seating area from the dining area. Over the extra-large dining table is a surprise — a vaulted ceiling with beams and skylights. Glass doors open to the pool and backyard. Even outdoors there is art to be displayed — several sculptures by Dale Rogers.

The kitchen adjoins the dining area and contains the original wooden cabinets that came with the home.

“I thought I wanted an all-white kitchen, but I saw that the wood was a wonderful complement to the travertine floors,” Berman says.

They soften and warm up what could otherwise seem a little sterile. A small seating area completes the picture, good for watching TV or chatting with guests while dinner is being prepared.

Personal comfort is an issue taken seriously in the home, and it is most clearly expressed in the master suite. Secluded via a small hallway, with pocket doors that can make it completely private, it features a large square bedroom, restful and quiet. There is also a room-size closet — “the largest closet we’ve ever done” says Parks — and a carefully detailed, spa-like bath. There’s also an adjacent office — not part of the original footprint of the house — with a vaulted ceiling. A clerestory window allows a view of the treetops, and a window next to Berman’s desk provides a view of the pool.

But the most noteworthy feature of the house has nothing to do with scale or composition. It’s the way natural light is brought into the home.

“I wanted daylight to follow Ellen around,” Parks says. “It’s almost like a sundial.”
 

And it’s her love of the visual arts that is showcased in her new home. Paintings and sculptures are everywhere; proper display space was a major concern during the remodeling. Berman’s art is colorful and at times quixotic.

Examples of this “daylight harvesting” include the various skylights that brighten potentially dark areas and the use of transoms. The master bath, for example, is an inside space. But a cleverly placed transom of glass, set high in the wall above the shower, brings in natural light from the guest bath next to it. Absolute privacy is maintained, but now the master bath draws in daylight.
Even more remarkable are the several exterior walls, set perpendicular to the house, that bounce light into the rooms, giving a different degree and quality depending on the time of day. These walls are constructed with narrow slits so that early in the morning and late in the afternoon the sun flows directly through them.

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Berman had a 40-year career in Washington, D. C., and retired in 2006 as president of the Consumer Energy Council of America. It was a busy and important time, developing public policy for energy and telecommunications issues. But through it all there was an even more important passion that never flagged — her love of the arts. She produced plays on and off Broadway (including the Tony-nominated “Enchanted April”) and was the driving force behind the highly acclaimed “Operation Epsilon” at the Nora Theater Company in Cambridge, Mass.

And it’s her love of the visual arts that is showcased in her new home. Paintings and sculptures are everywhere; proper display space was a major concern during the remodeling. Berman’s art is colorful and at times quixotic. There’s an impressive number of works on paper by the British colorist Patrick Heron, but there’s also a 6-foot-high sculpture of a rose plant that occupies a corner of the dining area. It came from a downtown Sarasota salvage store.

Instead of a downtown condo Berman ended up with a perfect home for her needs and her personality. The close collaboration with Parks paid many dividends. Just about their only argument — “No, discussion,” corrects Parks — was about the color of the front door. She was imagining a subtle, dignified taupe, perhaps. Park talked her into an eye-popping turquoise. It’s the perfect touch, a colorful entrance to a home filled with even more color — and light.