Reviving The Villa Calypso

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Architect James Gibson refers to the seminal characteristics of Georgian style by utilizing the geometric forms of sqares, rectangles and triangles in his elegant design from the 1970s.

The persistent and somewhat hackneyed adage, “What goes around, comes around,” often portends unwelcome consequences. At Villa Calypso, the gracious John’s Island home of Petra Roberts, principal of Boxwood Interiors – where she is ably assisted by her daughter, Whitney – this same adage could only refer to her deft interpretation of the exuberant, decorative patterns and colors popular in the 1970s (remember?) when the house, designed by distinguished Vero Beach architect James Gibson, was constructed.

Found beside a lush fairway, the house elegantly restates the Georgian style’s seminal characteristics. For this single-story, hip-roofed structure attended by a freestanding pair of  garages, Mr. Gibson referred to the simple forms of grade-school geometry – squares, rectangles, triangles and circles. Likewise, architectural adornment was deliberately constrained – the plainest of cornices and a sparing use of decorative details contrast with the appropriately muscular quoins that emphasize the structure’s corners and the Italian Renaissance heritage of Georgian architecture. The resulting symmetry is a triumph of understatement.

Read the entire article in the December 2004 issue

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