And the Award for Most Unusual Beach House Goes To …

An architect's personal home just hit the market

August 11, 2017 9:00 am

Priced at about $1,000 per square foot, you might think that late architect William Morgan’s $1.75 million beach-front home along the coastline of Atlantic Beach in Florida is a tad pricey.

You’d be wrong.

Considering the median price per square foot for homes along Central Park South is $2,521 — those would be homes that weren’t “inspired by the stepped structure of the ancient Roman seaside town of Herculaneum” — we’d say the former Morgan family home is kind of a steal.

So what makes the house reminiscent of the city that’s been called Pompei’s little brother?

Well to start, the three-story house is comprised of two slightly differently sized triangles that are organized on an axis that extends from the west to the east or, if you’d like, from land to sea.

Architect Home (10 images)

Since the triangles are built into a preexisting sand dune, the levels of the home are separated acoustically and visually notes scholar Robert McCarter, though the home retains an open feel.

With three bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, slanted ceilings and plenty of windows throughout, the home is “at once pyramid” and its “triangular volumes echo the form of the dunes, deflect the winds of coastal storms, and open to the ocean view,” McCarter concludes in his analysis.

We’ll take McCarter‘s word for it and you can take ours that the AIA-recognized house is a deal.

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