An architectural designer who says, “I deal in ‘wow,’” is designing a 15,000-square-foot Lido Beach residence—8,000 square feet of it under air—with a decidedly futuristic look.

“If you don’t have that overwhelming feeling of ‘wow, what is that, what is going on there,’ it’s just a normal structure,” says J. Stanbury of J. Stanbury Design, who moved to the Sarasota area from Miami in 2014 to design the home for his client, a longtime local businessman.  

 The four-bedroom residence, right on north Lido Beach, will resemble the prow of an ocean liner or a spaceship, depending on your point of view. Its curvilinear profile, Stanbury says, was inspired by the late architecture superstar Zaha Hadid. “My client just loved the upside-down arches,” he says. “[The project] was nicknamed The Starship for a long time.” Those curves came with challenges, Stanbury says. “I took [the plans] to builders and everybody said that’s a $10 million build,” he says. Instead, he’s using money-saving slabs built off site, which will be put in place with a crane.

Stanbury says groundbreaking is expected late this summer.