In Record Time - Newest addition to Towles Court up in nine weeks

June 4, 2000
Section: SUNDAY REAL ESTATE
Page: I1
 Dorothy Stockbridge-Pratt STAFF WRITER

The newest house in Towles Court, just completed in nine weeks, carries the genes of the historic older homes
of the Sarasota artists' colony.
"I wanted it to retain the flavor of the neighborhood and somehow echo the building across the way, which
meant porches both upstairs and down, giving an open, welcoming feeling," said owner Katharine Butler, a
painter who will have one of the gallery spaces. After buying the 50-by-100-foot site at 1943 Morrill St., Butler
called on architect Robert Steuber, who had designed the two-year-old raspberry- colored house next door.
Butler wanted to get as much of the 2,000-square- foot commercial space as allowed and put an apartment
with studio upstairs.
"The building intentionally borrows elements from the neighborhood and still remains contemporary in design
and function," architect Steuber said . "The exciting colors are from the artists themselves."
Knick Barger and his Youbar Construction beat a 90-day deadline and completed the post and beam design in
nine weeks, including the landscaping. How did he do it?
"I had about 18 guys working full time. I have my own people doing the framing, drywall, trim work, electric,
plumbing and air conditioning," Barger said. "And we did it for $68 per square foot."
Barger likes to tell how Butler anointed the men in the concrete crew before they placed a crystal in the center
of the concrete slab. Other stones in the slab point outward to guide the negative forces.
Barger likes the post and beam design because interior walls can be relocated. Six-by-six posts in the outside
wall support the building. Between the beams are 14-inch-thick multi-ply beams, which take more labor than
conventional framing.
The gallery spaces have plenty of light, including two skylights in a front gallery. In the sophisticated apartment
upstairs, the ceilings are vaulted and the floor is an inch and a half of sealed concrete over plywood. The
stained concrete floors on both levels are a practical, commercial look that's catching on in some contemporary
homes, Barger said.
Siding is horizontal Hardiplank, a concrete product. The metal roof is Galvalume.
"I like how it's integrated into Towles Court, and I like the attention to detail and quality," said Kathleen Wilson,
who has opened her MSWorld, Inc. in one of the studios. It will be an office for the Multiple Sclerosis on-line
support group and a gallery for her art, proceeds from which will benefit MS. Later, art by people with MS will be
exhibited. The other galleries are expected to be open by the time of the June 16 Art Walk.
Next door at 1947 Morrill St., Steuber designed and Barger built a two- story residence for sculptor Andy
Marcus and his wife, painter Kathleen Carrillo. Marcus said it looked old, even when it was under construction.
"The electrical inspector thought it was a restoration," Marcus said.
Barger salvaged all the windows from a '30s house being torn down in McClellan Park. The claw-foot tub and
the yellow pine floors upstairs came from a '20s house on Morrill. Even the kitchen came from an Oyster Bay
house . It, too, is a post and beam design.
That house served as Butler's introduction to Steuber and Barger. She fell in love with Towles Court and
rented studio space from Carrillo in 1998 -99.
"I love old houses in interesting neighborhoods. I have renovated several because I get such a thrill seeing
really old buildings come back to life," said Butler, who has just finished a three-year renovation of an 1850
farm house in Maine. She's the first owner outside the family, so the house had never been updated except for
electricity on the first floor and one bath, grudgingly added in the 1950s.
"The project was very challenging and exciting and now the house is very comfortable, while retaining the lines
and essence it originally had," added Butler, who also has renovated a house on Siesta Key. "At Towles Court,
I think both Robert Steuber and Knick did fabulous work, above and beyond what I have come to expect."
Barger had some help on the project from his daughter, Knickole, 20, who will join Youbar as administrative
director when she completes her business degree at Florida State University. She has been working there
part-time, along with making the Deans List at MCC.
To save an old cedar tree in front (possibly 250 years old), Butler sought and obtained a set-back variance for
the back porch that allowed the building to be set back from the tree. Construction carefully spans the tree 's
root system.
Steuber notes that conventional zoning fails to make allowances for rear yard oriented businesses, such as
those in Towles Court.
"Artist conventions are conspicuously absent from both the zoning and building codes, and the special needs
of live/work artists in many cases conflict with local zoning," Steuber said. "Bradenton has studied Sarasota's
example and is drafting artists' language for their code to encourage a six- block area to become a 'village of
the arts'."
Steuber said that Towles Court is looking into having its own overlay district written into the code, appropriate
to its block of some 21 studios.


Caption: Artists' galleries downstairs and a residence with studio upstairs is the formula of the newest building
in Sarasota's Towles Court. It's colorful, as is the two-year-old raspberry-colored home next door. Both were
built by Knick Barger and designed by architect Robert Steuber in keeping with the restored houses in the
artists' live-work area.
STAFF PHOTO/MIKE LANG
The new building at left and the two-year-old raspberry- colored residence next door fit right in with the
renovated older houses of Towles Court, a Sarasota live-work artists colony.
Above, the upstairs apartment at 1943 Morrill St. has clean, contemporary lines and a back balcony facing the
interior walkways of Towles Court. Below , the backyard of the home.
STAFF PHOTOS/MIKE LANG