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A house that transcends home

The late Paul Rudolph's Umbrella House, an architectural gem in Sarasota, wlll be sold in rare fashion - at an art auction.

By TOM ZUCCO
Published February 14, 2005

	[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
	The supports for the namesake, a huge wooden trellis that once covered the terrace and the pool, are still on the roof. The only part of the house that hasn't been restored is the trellis. "That's a good project to leave to the next people," current owner Gary Stover said.

SARASOTA - It began as a happy accident eight years ago and ends Feb. 23 with something far more rare - a 52-year-old, 2,000-square foot home sold at an art auction, with the opening bid set at $1.2-million.

Carol and Gary Stover were browsing through a Manhattan Barnes & Noble in 1997 when they stumbled upon a copy of John Howey's The Sarasota School of Architecture, 1941-1966. The book documents the work of a group of American architects who brought European modernism to what was then the sleepy art enclave of Sarasota.

Florida homes are not generally known for their architecture, especially those from the 1950s, which were built fast and cheap to accommodate the post-war baby boom.

But one of the examples the Stovers saw in the book was a true architectural masterpiece: Paul Rudolph's Umbrella House on Lido Shores.

Built in 1953, the three-bedroom, three-bath home has nine levels and windows covering the entire rear of the house. It is a tribute to Rudolph's use of space. A set of drawers that is flush to a bedroom wall projects out the other side to form a ledge for books and a lamp in the living room.

The house got its name from the huge wooden trellis that extended the width of the home and covered the terrace and the pool.

Architectural Digest deemed the Umbrella House one of the five most remarkable houses of the mid 20th century. Among other unusual aspects, there are only two diagonal lines in the home - a pair of short metal support rods on the second floor.

This, the Stovers thought, was where they needed to spend their retirement. So that summer, they found the address and knocked on the door. The owners had lived there 30 years, had raised their children there, and wanted to move to a condo. They were thinking about selling.

But there was work to do.

The original gray interior had been painted white, oak floors had been covered with carpeting, and the water in the pool was black with algae. Even the signature trellis "umbrella" had been removed.

"But the bones of the house were exactly the same as when it was built," said Gary Stover, 58. "And we loved the challenge of bringing it back to life."

In October 1997, two months after Rudolph died of cancer at age 78, the Stovers bought the house for $250,000, moved from their apartment in lower Manhattan, and began restoring the house to its original condition. Now, because they have to move to California to tend to Carol Stover's ailing mother, they've put the house up for sale.

But not just any sale.

Only two other mid century modern homes have been sold at an art auction - Phillip Johnson's Rockefeller Guest House in Manhattan in 1989 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill., last year.

"This," Gary Stover said as he stood on the lower level and looked up, "is a work of art, too."

The auction will take place at the Hyatt Hotel in Sarasota. Registration is at 5 p.m., the auction begins at 6, and marketing is being handled by Christie's Great Estates.

A bidder's information packet is available. For $50.

Steven Good, chairman and CEO of Sheldon Good & Co., a Chicago auction house that will handle the sale, said an art auction is the only appropriate way to sell the home.

"It's for exactly the same reason as a Van Gogh or a Gauguin goes up for auction," Good said. "The house is difficult to value because of what and where it is. It's not as if you can look at the other houses in the area and make comparisons."

Under the terms of the auction, the Stovers are not obligated to accept any bid less than $1.2-million, but they reserve the right to take the best offer, even if it's less.

Good said he has received interest from all over the world, although he wouldn't speculate how high the bidding might go "because no matter what you do, you're going to be wrong."

The home on Westway Drive has for years been an unofficial tourist attraction. The Stovers say nearly 1,000 people drive past every year, and the traffic has picked up since the sale was announced.

The Umbrella House's main draw, they say, is the man who designed it.

Rudolph is considered one of the most prominent post-World War II Modernist architects in the United States and an inspiration to many of today's designers. After working in Sarasota for several years in the 1940s, he continued his work in New England and was chairman of the Department of Architecture at Yale University.

It also doesn't hurt that property values have soared in Sarasota in recent years. And on Lido Shores, a deed restricted community just north of St. Armands Circle, which is surrounded by Sarasota Bay, New Pass and the Gulf of Mexico, homes are priced from $500,000 to more than $15-million.

But the Umbrella House is foremost a home. "It's a very comfortable place to live," said Gary Stover, who along with his wife worked for a Wall Street publishing company before they moved to Florida.

Although the house still has its original jalousie windows, the monthly electric bill has never topped $300. And although 2,000 square feet of living space may not be considered expansive, "people think it's larger," Carol Stover said, "because every inch of space is used."

The core of the house is "the bridge," a suspended hallway that connects two upstairs bedrooms, and the rectangular 26,000-gallon pool is the centerpiece of the back yard.

"The battleship gray interior has a cooling effect because there's so much light here," said Carol Stover, 57. "And at different times of the day and year, the way the light casts shadows is always different."

The only part of the house that hasn't been restored is the namesake trellis.

"That's a good project to leave to the next people," Gary Stover said.

The couple say they hope they'll suffer no seller's remorse. But they know they won't likely find another house anything like this one.

"It was," Carol Stover said, "a gift."

[Last modified February 14, 2005, 01:19:06]