When architect Chayo Frank had the chance to build his own home in the center of Florida’s lush and affluent Ponce-Davis community, not far from downtown Miami and South Beach, he took it. “What I wanted, more than even an architectural design, was an environment—something that we felt good in, that was open and spacious and comfortable,” he told Robb Reportrecently.
What he ended up with was a showstopping residence inspired in part by Frank Lloyd Wright’s geometric forms and organic style. Adding to its singularity, the home is clad in California redwood and surrounded by dense tropical landscaping that Frank and his wife, Luz Marina McAninch, have called “irreplaceable,” with an appraised value of more than $10 million. The couple is now parting ways with the property five decades after Frank first moved in. Jennifer Goldstein and Casey Fritz at Douglas Elliman hold the $12 million listing.
Rather than build on a north-south axis, Frank angled the more than 5,000-square-foot steel-beam structure to run from the southeast to northwest on its corner parcel, with everything flaring out from a spacious central hub. “There’s a feeling of tranquility,” he said. “There’s nothing in the architecture that’s pulling you one way or another direction.”
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The cavernous, redwood-encased great room, with a staircase that hugs a curving wall of coral stone, has a sunken lounge large enough to accommodate several different seating areas and a towering wall of glass that brings the lush gardens indoors. A sunken dining room, also accented with a curved wall of coral stone, is alongside the galley kitchen, which has been updated with modern appliances. Right above is an office accessible only by a ladder, giving it a sort of treehouse feel.
Rounding out the main floor is the double-height primary bedroom that is paired with a blue-tiled bathroom and a spacious walk-in closet. Upstairs, an additional two bedrooms share a bathroom and a terrace. Frank says that at one point he used one part of the home as aviary, later turning it into a champagne room.
The exterior spaces follow the same design aesthetic that Frank was going for inside. To wit: a 50-foot lap lane is contained within an angular free-form pool alongside a spacious coral stone patio for sunbathing and entertaining. Walking along the property’s winding paths, you’ll also encounter coral rock grottos and rare plants imported from around the world, including Costa Rica, Hawaii, and equatorial Borneo.
While Frank and his wife will miss their one-of-a-kind home, he’s generously hoping that the new owners can make it suit their personal taste, too. “I want them to be able to bring in whatever kind of furniture or style, or however their lifestyle and their preferences are,” he said. “I want them to have that kind of freedom to use it for their own benefit.”
Click here to see all the photos of the Ponce-Davis estate.
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