Dream Homes

The 10 Most Beautiful Homes in Sarasota

From an old-Florida cottage to a Beaux Arts mansion, Sarasota’s 10 most beautiful homes.

By Ilene Denton Published in the October 2016 issue of Sarasota Magazine

463 Sapphire Drive

Of the 13 original early-1920s homes still standing in Sapphire Shores, just south of the Ringling Museum, our panelists anointed this Sapphire Drive gem the most beautiful. They praised its wonderfully well-preserved details, including its iron lanterns and elaborate family crest over the front door. The salmon exterior color of Nagirroc, as it was named by its original owner, Charles E. Corrigan (spell his name backwards to see why), recalls Mediterranean mansions de-signed in South Florida in the ’20s by the legendary Addison Mizner.

Photography by Greg Wilson

1255 Westway Drive

Internationally renowned fashion designer Adrienne Vittadini took a different professional turn with her husband, Gigi, in the early 2000s when they developed three grand, classically inspired residences in Lido Shores with architect Cliff Scholz. Our panelists picked this home at 1255 Westway Drive as their favorite because of its spot-on proportions and scale, and its infinity-edge pool that spills over into New Pass.

Photography by Everett Dennison

625 Norsota Way

“One of Sarasota’s sexiest homes,” a panelist calls this sunny West Indies-style residence on Sarasota Bay that was designed in 2009 by architect Thorning Little. His clients wanted a Creole colonial look that references New Orleans’ landmark Pitot House, and Little layered on authentic details, like pecky cypress shutters and a cross-hatch motif on window tops and terrace railings. Best of all, they kept the original cypress-clad 1905 cottage on the property and re-stored it for use as a luxurious one-bedroom guest house.

Photography by Matt McCourtney

1601 Prospect St.

Modernist architect Guy Peterson has designed many award-winning homes, but none higher-profile than the Spencer House. With its strong white horizontal planes punctuated by a grid of small square openings, it set off a firestorm during construction in 2012 and 2013 because of its location on a prominent corner among the traditional cottages of charming, old Bungalow Hill. (One panelist called it “fearless.”) We love it, but even if you don’t, it created a lively pub-lic conversation about architecture, and that’s a good thing.

Photography by Greg Wilson

1945 Bahia Vista St.

This two-bedroom, one-bath Florida cottage in the West of Trail neighborhood of Avondale, on Bahia Vista Street just west of Tamiami Trail, was chosen for its humble Old Florida design, beautifully thought-out details, colorful native landscaping and the way it wraps the corner in an interesting way. It proves that beauty need not be grandiose. “A real cozy 1950 home,” says one panelist. “It’s perfect.”

Photography by Everett Dennison

4433 Riverwood Ave.

Architect Jack West referenced both one of the earliest forms of architecture and a Jetsonesque Home of the Future when he designed the Round House on Riverwood Avenue in 1960. The handsome 18-foot-tall round tower was built as the Hilton Leech Art Studio. (Leech was one of the first instructors at what was then known as the Ringling School of Art back in 1931.) Glass roof panels flood the interior with painter-friendly light. Architect Tatiana White refitted the interior a few years ago as a pied-a-terre for a local art- and architecture-loving couple.

Photography by Ryan Gamma

840 N. Casey Key Road

This curvy-roofed guest house, part of a five-acre Gulf-to-bay vacation North Casey Key compound designed by Sara-sota architect Jerry Sparkman, is an architectural marvel that earned the 2010 Gold Best of American Living Award from the National Association of Home Builders. The graceful, one-of-a-kind arched roof, inspired by and nestled into a grove of windswept live oaks on the property’s bayfront, is a contemporary expression of resort-style living that evokes memories of a childhood treehouse. Now to wrangle a stay-over invitation…

7712 Sanderling Road

Set right on the beach on nearly four acres in exclusive Sanderling, this original Guy Peterson design was redeveloped by David Young of DWY Landscape Architects last year. A clean-lined coastal masterpiece called Aquadisia, it’s wrapped on all sides by serene pools that flow to a glass-clad water wall. (Aquadisia refers to water, after all.) Perhaps the cool-est feature is a floating glass cube visitors must pass through at the entryway; it’s meant as a contemplative bridge between the hectic outside world and the serene Gulf-front retreat. See our cover for another view.

Photography by Greg Wilson

1300 Westway Drive

Our panelists were unanimous in choosing famed architect Paul Rudolph’s 1953 Umbrella House in Lido Shores as the most striking in our treasure trove of Sarasota School of Architecture residences. Current owners have meticulously restored its namesake “umbrella”—a novel shade roof originally made, believe it or not, of tomato stakes; it was damaged by a windstorm in the 1960s and removed. (The new one is made of aluminum.) Architect Greg Hall earned a Florida Trust for Historic Preservation award this year for his work on the project.

Photography by Anton Grassl / ESTO courtesy of SarasotaArchitectural Foundation SAF-SRQ.org

1420 Bay Point Drive

No less a landmark than the Rodin Museum in Paris was the inspiration for this monumental, four-story Beaux Arts residence in Bay Point Park completed by former Congresswoman Katherine Harris and her late husband in 2012. It boasts graceful stonework and moldings and ornate wrought-iron gates and balcony railings set with gold-painted fleur-de-lis. The six-bedroom, seven-bath and four-half-bath residence has 16,000-plus square feet of air-conditioned living space plus a nearly equal amount of bayfront terraces; Harris sometimes opens up the house to host fund-raising parties for nonprofits.

Photography by Everett Dennison

Sarasota is famous the world over for its beautiful homes—beachfront mansions for the hedge-fund billionaires, iconic midcentury modern for the art lovers, charming old homes for the seekers of classic Americana. There are so many, in fact, that it would seem impossible to compile a list of the 10 prettiest. But that was the daunting task we set for ourselves, with the help of a task force of designers, realtors and architectural experts. We expected chaos and arguments. But what we got was surprising unanimity. The same homes kept appearing on everyone’s list. Here they are—our most beautiful homes of 2016.

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