People never quite know what to expect from a design project by Peter Marino. The top NY based interior designer and architect is well known for his irreverence and sophistication, which led him to a path of successful and notorious projects such as the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Sardina and Four Seasons Resort in Santa Barbara.
Peter Marino is a modernist who has demonstrated over and over again that the words simple and sumptuous are not antithetical. His ability to conjure a luxury design without excess has made him the architect of choice for developers and luxury brands, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Fendi.
Marino has had a close relationship with the couple who commissioned this house for decades. He designed the couple’s Palm Beach estate, where he had conjured a cluster of hip-roofed shadowy pavilions evocative of Polynesia that showcased their collections of contemporary art and museum-quality Southeast Asian sculptures. But Palm Beach had lost much of its appeal since their son and grandchildren live close by Miami and most of their Asian art has been donated to museums.
The ideal location would be on one of the small man-made islands that dot Biscayne Bay. The site the couple ultimately acquired on Star Island was a long rectangle, with access to the water at one narrow end. The architect had to contend with a very difficult site. Only a couple of rooms could have water views.
His ingenious design features two rectangular “boxes,” a long, narrow two-story one consisting of a library and master suite, with guest rooms upstairs, and a shorter, wider box set farther back, containing a double-height living and dining area. Linking them is a spaciously extended entry that immediately reveals views of the water.
Each volume is pierced with small, tall, or expansive windows so the couple would get sea views without getting bored. To achieve an effect of a diagonal view of the water, the living room’s wall of glass, which looks onto the pool and the bay, is set at a sharp angle.
The double-height library was awarded the water view, not the master suite, which is darker, and moody in order to stay cooler and more luxurious. The dining area looks onto a walled green garden, another box that actually makes the space seem larger. The floor in the entry is a mosaic of silver, brown, and rust marbles that resembles a rug—and inspired the actual rugs in the living room. The baths are lined in boldly patterned stones in shades of yellow, orange, and green.
The house also demonstrates another of Peter Marino’s strengths—his connection to art. He is a consummate collector as well as a patron. Here he worked with the owners’ Asian sculptures and paintings by Léger, Miró, Kiefer, and Prince, but was also able to commission pieces including Lalanne furnishings, and a geometric light fixture by Johanna Grawunder in the dining area, as well as a series of his own large bronze boxes.
