Photography by William Abranowicz
In the master living/dining room, the sectional sofa and club chair by Jonas are upholstered in a Perennials fabric, and the armchair is a Pollaro reproduction of Kem Weber’s Airline chair; a Jeff Koons sculpture and binoculars from Nicholas Brawer are at the window, while a wood bowl by Pedro Petry is displayed on a Chang-designed cocktail table of Ataija Azul limestone.
In 2007 Gwathmey received a call from another major client. The gentleman had purchased two choice parcels of land on St. Barts to create a precipitously high one-acre site on the island’s north end. Gwathmey and Chang, along with their spouses, boarded a plane and spent a happy week there, during which the architects, who had never worked in the Caribbean, studied local materials and building types. For Gwathmey, known for his bold sculptural forms, designing a home on St. Barts presented something of a challenge: Strict local ordinances require that all dwellings have a symmetrical four-sided roof. Any temptation to bend the rules was quickly dismissed when he found out that Bruno Magras, president of the St. Barts Territorial Council, lived on the property that directly neighbored his own.
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Inspired by the steepness of the site, Gwathmey conceived of a collection of separate pavilions—a private, pristine hill town, as it were. The plan consisted loosely of two levels: On the lower would be six guest villas, one of which would hold a living room, kitchen, dining area, and gym. On the more private upper level would be a master bedroom villa, plus another containing a living room, dining room, and kitchen. Each level would have its own pool and terrace. To maintain an air of simplicity, Gwathmey kept the number of building materials to a minimum, relying on white-stuccoed concrete for exterior walls and polished concrete for accents. A dark-gray volcanic stone excavated from the site was used for retaining walls and some doorways, and a light-gray Ataija Azul limestone from Portugal paves the outdoor terraces as well as living areas and bathrooms (several tables were also carved from the same substance).