Near the water on South Drive in Cherokee Park sits a new two-story home—four bedrooms and almost 5,700 square feet—that manages a rare architectural trick: It looks as if it has always been there. 

At first, it’s hard to tell whether the house, built in 2024 and named Watersound, is brand-new or simply meticulously kept over the decades. The porch, the metal roof, a slender, two-story tower enveloped in a canopy of oaks—all of it feels inherited, as if the house had been there for a lifetime.

That was intentional. Though the structure is new, architects Don Cooper and Michael Marti of Cooper Johnson Smith Peterson Architects & Town Planners echoed the footprint and breezeway of the previous home that once stood on the lot.

Cherokee Park, one of Sarasota’s most beloved old neighborhoods, invites this kind of continuity. The homeowners had been living only a few blocks away, in a house they’d outgrown. Remodeling was impractical. “It had been added onto and renovated so there were different levels,” the homeowner says. “It needed all the updated plumbing and electrical before you got cosmetic.” Flood concerns pushed the decision to start fresh further, allowing the owners to build something timeless and resilient.

Before the plans existed, the homeowner had already begun envisioning the house in her mind. “I was obsessive,” she says, gathering images for years from Pinterest boards and magazine articles. Ellen Hanson, founder of Ellen Hanson Designs, helped sort and refine what she’d collected.

Inside, the home feels like a Gulf Coast interpretation of a Craftsman-style home, with materials that evoke a historic feel: plastered walls, oak floors, built-ins and ceiling beams. Hanson’s design is understated, with pockets of boldness—a sunny yellow mudroom; a deep, sea-blue office for him, a meditative blue office for her; and a green kitchen inspired by a photo the homeowner had saved. Its natural-wood island looks timeless and has held up beautifully under heavy use. As the homeowner puts it: “Our goal was to have a livable home.”

Hanson emphasizes staying power over trends. “We are and always have been anti-trend,” she says. “The goal of interiors is not aesthetics only, but interiors that have longevity. We call that future proofing.”

Ryan Perrone, founder of Nautilus Homes, led the Watersound build, and began construction under Covid constraints—thin labor pools, delays and the challenge of simply getting workers on site–with an emphasis on quality construction. The precision shows in the screened porch with its meticulously joined beams, the Pennsylvania-built staircase, the exposed-framing breezeway and the roof overhangs with hidden fasteners.

Outdoor living was essential. “That screened patio is everything,” Perrone says. Bifold doors erase the line between living room and pool courtyard, where turf, water and a rope swing share equal billing. The pool sits level with the house, encouraging the kind of free-range movement that defines Florida childhood.

The tower emerged from a longing for a view: Could they see the water? “Ryan rented a lift to see,” the homeowner says. The answer was yes. Now, from the top of the house, the homeowners can see the Ringling Bridge, boats and sunsets lighting the sky. Instead of a widow’s walk, the architects designed an enclosed perch that the children now claim for forts and homemade pulley systems.

The house has already been tested by 2024’s storms and stood firm. The land was raised, the home was built higher than codes required and a whole-house generator was added. “We knew we wanted to be able to shelter here,” says the homeowner.

In the end, all those stacks of magazines and late-night planning sessions paid off. The house has become what the owners hoped for: something new that didn’t overpower what came before it.