BUNGALUX

March 4, 2012

Palm Beach’s La Casa Sin Nombre

Architect Behind the House: Addison Mizner

Addison Mizner

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Sure, most of our listings are clustered around Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. But we also feature really great listings elsewhere … and elsewhere in this case is Palm Beach.

La Casa Sin Nombre, one of the doyennes of Palm Beach, is one of our favorite listings anywhere. Why? Well, number one it’s just beautiful, but number two is La Casa Sin Nombre has phenomenal pedigree. Since many of our regular readers have asked us to feature more information on architects, we thought this would be a good place to start.

The house was designed by Addison Mizner, and since we’re sort of obsessed with him, we thought we’d give you a brief lesson on who he is and why he’s significant.

Known for his Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial Revival style, Mizner was the most well-known American architect in the 1920s. He was the visionary behind the development of Boca Raton, Florida, and he remains the most famous Palm Beach architect to this day.

As with much of history, Mizner’s influence was the result of a confluence of factors. At age 46 Mizner moved for health reasons to Palm Beach, during the time when resort hotels were becoming less fashionable. Because of this, many of his wealthy clients preferred to commission their own oceanfront mansions as opposed to staying in large hotels. The collaborative results between Mizner’s genius and his clienteles' pocketbooks are some of the most stunning mansions in all of America.

Many of Mizner’s designs are easy to spot: His houses were designed with both functionality and beauty in mind. Most were one-room deep to allow for cross ventilation in the hot Florida heat; likewise, kitchens were often located in wings by themselves to keep heat away from the living areas. Mizner often designed with loggias, colonnades, clusters of columns supporting arches, and casement windows.

We’ve pulled a few Mizner houses and featured some photos above of his jaw-dropping work. We currently feature two of his listings on the site. In addition to the stunning La Casa Sin Nombre, we also have Costa Bella, for those of you who are a bit more budget conscious. The 12,000 square foot La Casa Sin Nombre is currently listed at $59 million, while the smaller Costa Bella is listed around $9 million.

Who says there isn’t Mizner for every budget?

Bungalux's Favorite Mizner Listings ...

• La Casa Sin Nombre
• Costa Bella