When architect Alfred Browning Parker was considering the design of his own house, he took a cue from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, building a home that followed the contours of its natural surroundings.
Rather than a coniferous forest in Pennsylvania, however, in Browning Parker’s case those surroundings consist of 18,000 square feet of palm tree hammocks in the bohemian Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami: a fitting location for one of the fathers of Tropical Organic architecture.
Now, the home can be yours for the consummately reasonable price of $2.75 million. Conceived as a series of pavilions connected by a 90-foot lap pool, the concrete- and Honduran mahogany-bedecked home includes separate living and dining pavilions topped by second-floor sleeping lofts—all of which feature stunning views of the palm groves. Also on the property are a koi lagoon with a waterfall, a sauna and a cabana shower room.
Curving staircases up to the second-level loft areas and strategically placed portholes, cut-outs and built-ins impart an openness to the pavilions, while blonde wood ceilings offer a stunning contrast against the dark mahogany.
The triplex master suite includes a den atop the first-floor pool, a window-walled bathroom on the second floor and an open-air bedroom at the very top.
Since being owned by Parker, the home has gone through a number of owners, but it maintains its elegant, mid-century modern form—except, unfortunately, in the kitchen, which looks to have been re-fitted on the cheap. Still, with the home coming in under $3 million, it’d certainly be worth it to take the plunge and throw in a kitchen overhaul for this modernist masterpiece.