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The Ruskin House |
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©2025 CALVINO architecture studio, inc all contents of this publication whether in digital or analog format are the express property of CALVINOarchitecture studio, inc. and shall not be reproduced by any means without written consent from Mike Calvino |
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The Ruskin House 2000—2007
View from street at Southeast
Detail of “Urbanite” driveway |
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I met Stan for the first time down at the site. I remember we were sitting on the bench on his dock & I looked out across the water of the mouth of the canal at the island just to its north. The sky came down & touched the water with a color that I had not seen, or maybe not noticed in Florida before. The blue was so brilliant, maybe pronounced by the green of the mangroves, & I noticed that the clouds were a bright white, nearly silvery. As I turned to the south, there were dark storm clouds, of the shade of light charcoal. The colors gave the place such a quality that I could begin to describe it only by saying that it was ominous at a certain level, there was an anticipation, maybe of impending doom, yet there was an optimism, and a brilliance to the color & sense of the place. As I spent time at the site after this I noticed that this sense brought about by an impending storm would repeat all summer, many times the dark charcoal clouds would start to the southwest, out in the bay & then skirt around to the southeast, float up the east coast of the bay & swirl out over the top, northwest corner above the bay & leave the site untouched by its rains, but with the |
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sense of anticipation, the grumble of the thunder, the dark brilliance & silvery lining that is quite simply excitement & anticipation, the opposites of impending doom & brilliant anticipation, the sense of being between two beautiful, opposite & powerful forces. I knew that this sense had to become the house, the house had to grow in a way that heightens these kinds of opposite, contending experiences that only this site could produce. |
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Photo: Daniel Currea |
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Photo: Daniel Currea |
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Photo: Daniel Currea |
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Photo: Daniel Currea |
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Photo: Daniel Currea |
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Photo: Daniel Currea |
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You can see in the above photos the screen enclosure is all framed with cypress & in the photo at right, it has all been swapped for aluminum. This happened in 2015 after the predicted life-expectancy of the cypress completely exposed to the weather. The design fab & swap of the systems can be seen here: http://www.calvinodesign.com/10021/05140AlumBeamsScreenSpace/
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