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Palm Beach Daily News

On the Market: Palm Beach villas in Cury Group's new Las Ventanas building

By: Christine Davis
Published: 11/28/2008Source: Palm Beach Daily News

Noted builder and developer Ed Cury and architect Rafael Portuondo turned to Venice for inspiration when they set about envisioning an ultra-luxury residential building with two units - one above the other - on an oceanview lot two blocks south of Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.

 

"It is inspired by the Venetian palazzos on the water," explains Portuondo, a principal of Portuondo Perotti Architects in Coral Gables, who was commissioned by The Cury Group of West Palm Beach to design the two villas of Las Ventanas, 102 and 104 Gulfstream Road at South Ocean Boulevard.

 

Built on the former site of a 13-unit apartment building, Las Ventanas was a project more than five years in the making.

 

With its Venetian-style details and a lush landscape designed by Adam Mills of Morgan Wheelock Inc., the Spanish Mediterranean-style building provides an effective transition between the stretch of oceanfront condominium buildings to its north and the historical Estate Section homes to its south.

 

Its rooms positioned to take advantage of the wide sea views, Las Ventanas offers a pair of residences that rival the size of many single-family homes in Palm Beach. But in keeping with the features of an ultra-luxury multi-family residence, Las Ventanas is a fully managed building, offering owners concierge-style services.

 

"The idea is that both units are totally private and separate," explains Cury.

 

The villa on the building's main floor - actually the second level of the three-story building - has 6,531 square feet of living space, while the penthouse boasts 7,716 square feet. Each residence has its own guest suite/cabana on the first floor. Both have a second guest suite along with the master suite on their primary floors, five bathrooms and five half-baths, including the cabana bath.

 

Recently completed, the homes are offered for sale through the Corcoran Group's Palm Beach brokerage. The villa at 102 Gulfstream is priced at $12 million, while the penthouse at 104 Gulfstream is $13.5 million.

 

"The details of these homes were painstakingly thought through to make them tie together," Portuondo says.

 

Cury adds that authenticity always was a key consideration in the choice of materials for the residences.

 

"Everything in these units is handmade and real," Cury notes. "Nothing is faux or simulated. We used real coral stone, real handmade iron. A lot of the fixtures are antiques that we rewired, and all the wood is mahogany and cypress."

 

Interior architectural features in the villa include the coffered ceiling in the foyer, the groin-vaulted ceiling in the gallery and lady's bath, cove ceilings in the master bedroom and a "strap-work" ceiling in the living room.

 

"The strap-work ceiling is made up of linear sections that create a pattern, and there's a continuous crown that goes all the way around," he says.

 

A strap-work ceiling of pecky cypress also graces the exterior loggias as well as the elevator foyer of the penthouse residence. The latter also boasts a barrel-vaulted ceiling in the main foyer and a mahogany-beamed ceiling in the living room.

 

Many of the floors are also noteworthy, Cury adds, including the one in the villa's entry: "It's actually a French limestone that was under a winery, and you can see traces of the wine through the stone."

 

The guest suites on the ground floor, accessible to the ocean, can serve as cabana-and-pool houses, each offering a secondary kitchen. These rooms - plus the foyers and the two air-conditioned, two-car garages - make up the ground floor of the building.

 

On the Main Level

 

Access to the main-level villa is by way of a grand foyer, which features 20-foot ceilings and a stone staircase with handcrafted, wrought-iron railings. Off the foyer and to the east is the northern cabana and guest space. Upon ascending to the second-floor landing and stepping inside the villa, one heads east to the public spaces and west to the private rooms.

 

"On the ocean, you have 180 degrees of visibility, with a loggia overlooking the ocean and the grand living room that spans the whole length of the portico," Portuondo says.

 

The dining room and library also offer ocean views. Walking west, one comes to the kitchen with a view of the shore. In the eastern part of the villa is the guest room. A gallery connects all five rooms.

 

On the west side of the foyer is the master bedroom suite, which includes a sitting room that shares a fireplace with the bedroom and his-and-her bathrooms and closets. The bedroom has a private balcony that overlooks the ocean.

 

On the Top Floor

 

One reaches the third-floor penthouse unit via an elevator or by an exterior staircase that leads from a garden courtyard on the first floor.

 

"It's Old World and typical of Palm Beach," Portuondo says. "Many of the old villas have exterior entries, where you feel that you have entered the house but you are still outdoors."

 

The exterior staircase leads to a wrought-iron-and-glass door on the second level. Beyond the door, a hallway takes one to the third-floor elevator foyer, which provides entries to the master suite and public spaces.

 

"This unit has an approximately 12-foot-high vaulted gallery, which connects the guest room, kitchen, dining room and library and ends with the living room, which overlooks the ocean and features an exposed-wood-beam ceiling," Portuondo says.

 

The library, meanwhile, can serve as the master sitting room or can be used as a separate space.

 

Finely Detailed Throughout

 

Architectural features in both residences are traditional and eclectic. "The second-floor unit has Venetian and antique Spanish detailing, and the other unit is more traditional and lighter in feeling," Portuondo says.

 

On the fa‡ade, the base of the structure is covered in slabs of coral stone. "These materials will look even better when they age, adding to the timeless quality," notes Portuondo.

 

The roof's eaves are detailed with an architectural element - similar to a cornice - that encircles the top of the building. The clay-tile roof has copper gutters.

 

"Both units have intimate pool areas," he says. "With stone patios and pools, the pools look carved out of the ground."

 

The gourmet kitchens and service bars have been equipped with custom-crafted cabinetry, gas ranges, built-in Sub Zero refrigerators, wine rooms and a full complement of top-of-the-line appliances.

 

All exterior doors and windows, along with the garage doors, have hurricane impact-rated glass and frames. Other amenities include a multi-zoned Trane air-conditioning system rated for high efficiency; Lutron switching, security, cable, satellite, telephone and vacuum systems; fire sprinkler systems; and a whole-house generator.

 

"The villas came out beautifully. Ed Cury has high standards and deserves a lot of credit," Portuondo says. "I loved the use of natural materials like the coral stone. Overall, our goal was to make the combination of the materials and the textures work together." 

 

For information, call listing agent Jim McCann at (561) 307-1525.

 

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