For decades, Florida’s residential landscape has been dominated by Mediterranean Revivals, cozy bungalows and mid-century ranch homes. Now a new style is firmly taking hold. Call them Miami Modern, California contemporary or, as some critics put it, “those big boxy places.” They are popping up from Davis Islands to South Tampa and Snell Isle to the Pinellas beaches. They typically have flat roofs, huge windows and stark white, no-frills exteriors. They are definitely big, and their prices can easily top $10 million.
A decade ago, modern homes made up only a small percentage of Tampa Bay’s ultra-luxurious housing stock. “Now it’s likely closer to half,” said Jennifer Zales, a Coldwell Banker Realty real estate agent who specializes in high-end properties. Among her listings: a 10,474-square-foot modern house in Tampa’s Beach Park that sold for $12.35 million, the third-highest sale price last year.
Interior designer Michelle Miller attributes the growing demand for these minimalist-looking homes to the area’s many newcomers. “The market is definitely going more contemporary than traditional,” she said. “It has to do with a lot of people coming from California and New York, or up from Miami and Naples, and what they’re looking to build, (which) the contemporary style lends itself to: floor-to-ceiling windows, open floor plans, accentuating the water views and making the view the statement.”
The epicenter of ultra-luxe homes in the bay area is Davis Islands, where baseball star Derek Jeter’s house sold in 2021 for $22.5 million – Tampa Bay’s record sales price – and was knocked down to make way for another mega mansion. The demand for modern-style homes on Davis Islands is so great that the Miami-based architectural firm Choeff Levy Fischman opened a Tampa office to handle the six local projects it currently has in the works.
“There is a style of modern architecture that is not very common, and not very many specialists do it, and that is our style,” said Paul Fischman, a principal in the firm. “The core way is using the local climate to design the building. It’s not just some ugly white box that’s not considerate of the existing environment.”
The firm, which has designed homes in Miami for rapper Lil Wayne and baseball player Alex Rodriguez, uses deep overhangs and insulated glass that “keep good lighting in and solar heat and glare out,” Fischman said. The interior infrastructure is controlled by technology, with window shades on timers to adjust to the slant of the sun’s rays.
Strikingly, the firm’s homes are cantilevered so there are no unsightly columns to block spectacular views. “They all look like they’re floating on the water, but they are the most structurally robust,” Fischman said. One Tampa inspector commented that he hadn’t seen so much steel in a project since he inspected the World Trade Center.
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Fischman thinks that what happened in Miami 12 to 15 years ago with modern homes is now occurring in Tampa and elsewhere on Florida’s Gulf Coast. “You put one with this level of sophistication in a neighborhood and it creates a little sizzle in the area,” he said. Soon, others will want the same type of home.
Miller, whose St. Petersburg firm has done interior design work for professional athletes and other wealthy clients, sees heightened interest in California contemporary homes, too.
“This style calls for organic, warmer materials – many wood tones,” she said. “The goal is to make the most of nature and views.”
So, what do you get in a modern home that costs $10 million or more?
The floors might be white oak, which can be stained to a variety of shades, or “large-format” but relatively lightweight porcelain tiles that can also be integrated into wall designs. There might be wood panels with “very clean, straight-line edges,” Miller said. Stairs might be floating, lighting recessed and blinds automated.
Many ultra-luxe modern houses have two kitchens – one for show and another for actual cooking that boasts every modern appliance, including built-in coffee machines, steam ovens and induction ranges. Instead of a formal living room, there is likely a “flex room” that can serve as a den, office, wine room or whatever else the buyer wants. “Often, when you put a title on a room, people think, ‘I don’t need that,’ so flex rooms are very popular,” Miller said. So are massage rooms and infrared saunas. “I’ve had so many requests for those over the past year,” she said. “With modern architecture, (buyers) want the finer things in life, but they are also very health-conscious.”
One request that Miller sometimes struggles to accommodate is finding room for a client’s prized art: “Often those homes are mostly windows, and (clients) have too much artwork and very little wall space.”
Fortunately for them, many of the rich also have other, more traditional homes. That’s where they can keep that Picasso or Pollock.
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