The plan is organized as two distinct volumes, one on each side of the home, joined by a clear walkway. That link is the organizing idea of the house. Moving from one wing to the other becomes a short passage through the garden itself, a daily reminder of the 21,000-square-foot site the home sits within. It also lets each wing hold its own character, with private and social life separated by a pause rather than a corridor.
Arrival is marked by a pronounced entry. An overhanging roof frame reaches out to meet visitors, offering shelter from sun and rain and setting a clear threshold between street and home. Just beyond, a water feature acts as a deliberate point of disconnection, a moment of movement and sound that separates the world outside from the calm of the interior. It is less ornament than punctuation. The house asks you to slow down before you enter.
Inside, the architecture turns its attention upward. High wood ceilings give the principal rooms their warmth and scale, and clerestory windows set along the roofline draw daylight deep into the plan. The effect is a house that feels generous without being oversized, its 5,952 square feet of livable space reaching well beyond its footprint. Floor-to-ceiling openings carry the garden to the edge of every major room, so the landscape becomes the backdrop to daily life rather than something viewed from a distance.
Greenery is written into the building itself. The projecting volumes carry integrated planters, softening the raw material palette and letting vegetation spill over the facade. Over time, the planting will grow into the architecture, blurring the edge between structure and garden in a way that suits the subtropical climate. ULU Studio’s landscape design extends that thinking across the grounds.
The result is a 7,789-square-foot home, designed by Stephanie Halfen and Anita Castellano, that pairs mid-century clarity with a distinctly South Florida openness. Its clients describe a house “designed around the way that we live,” and that is exactly the point. Every move, from the garden passage to the timber ceilings, is shaped by how the family moves through the day, and by the light and landscape that surround them.
