English Manor House for Sale

I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to post anything for quite a few days.  However this little number really caught my eye this morning and so I had to share.  This lovely Baroque manor house in Bristol England, called Kings Weston, is available for leasehold (until the year 2125) for about $3m.  It was designed around 1710 by Sir John Vanbrugh, the same architect who designed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard.  This is a much more modest home, and not nearly as famous as the others.  It is best known for the chimneys that are joined together to look like castle crenelations.
The home is currently being used as a conference center and wedding venue.  And the interior furnishings are ghastly...but the house is beautiful!  I can imagine it in the next BBC period drama.

Modern Beach Houses

Guy Peterson

While we mostly do traditional work in our office, I definitely have a soft spot for modern architecture.  Residential Architect Magazine recently published some beautiful award winning beach homes.  Here are my favorite.  This Sarasota beach house is by Guy Peterson of the Office For Architecture.  This home follows in Sarasota's rich  tradition of modern beach houses from masters like Paul Rudolf.

 Guy Peterson

Guy Peterson

Olson Kundig Architects regularly produce some of the most spectacular modern residential architecture of our day.  Their homes are always closely and beautifully linked with the surrounding landscape.  In the case of this house, it is a promontory on the coast of Hawaii.  What's not to love about that!

 Olson Kundig

 Olson Kundig

Olson Kundig

Olson Kundig

 I'm not really sure where this house designed by Bates Masi + Architects is located, but it looks like New England.

 Bates Masi + Architects

Bates Masi + Architects

Bates Masi + Architects

Bates Masi + Architects

This home by DesignARC is in Ventura California.  It feels very California to me...in a good way. What a sunset!

 DesignARC

  DesignARC

 DesignARC

 DesignARC

This smallish beach house on Long Island is by Fred Stelle.  Great pool...great kitchen.

 Fred Stelle

 Fred Stelle

 Fred Stelle

 Fred Stelle

Atlanta Mansion for Sale

 This 1923 Italianate mansion in the Buckhead section of Atlanta is on the market for a cool 3 million. I came across it in the "on the market" section of Architectural Digest.  I love this section of the magazine! It's so much fun to see fabulous properties available from around the world. The existing decor really needs some help.  I like to imagine how I would decorate the interiors....now that would be a fun project!

 I love this kitchen.  What fabulous glass cabinets.

 Wow this is an incredible room.  Great mantle, great architraves, great windows.

The gardens look like they could use a makeover too. But they probably have great bones.

Shady Spaces

While doing some research for a shade garden I'm designing, I came across a very talented Landscape Architect I'd never heard of, Edmund  Hollander.  He has just published a book of his work, called "The Private Oasis: The Landscape Architecture of Edmund Hollander".  I haven't seen the book yet, but I've seen a few photos from the book and also from Mr. Hollander's website.  What I've seen is certainly impressive.  I can't wait to look at the rest of the book.

I want the garden I'm working on to have a relaxed elegance.  A natural but not unruly look.  Some of these gardens are right up my alley.  Others are a little more formal than I'm looking for at the moment, but beautiful none the less.