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The repurposing of a former boat storage facility in Naples, Florida, cleaves to its nautical roots in the details.
A recently completed luxury development called Naples Bay Resort in southern Florida has proved successful despite an economic outlook that has turned grim. The resort’s overall image is meant to evoke a scaled-down version of the Mediterranean coastal village of Portofino, Italy, with tile roofs, wide overhangs and colorful stucco walls with deep set balconies.The sea town image is further evoked by the choice of Venetian-style awnings of simple construction, here dressed up with custom decorative arms and wall plate mounting brackets. Other details, such as the 4in. black and white stripes on the awnings or a choice of colors for the buildings taken directly from Portofino, contribute to the cohesive style. “We really struggled to keep the use of color under control,” says lead architect Matthew Kragh, principal of PK Studios, designers and planners of the resort. “The owner wanted a replication of all the colors of Portofino, but that would have overwhelmed, made it too busy. We held it to a few warm colors and adding the striped awnings was a way to pull the entire complex together, to add a sense of luxury to the condominiums and a sense of the residential to the luxury hotel.”Naples Bay Resort includes an 85-room hotel, a gourmet restaurant, 108 cottage units, 65 condominiums, 30 townhomes and shops on a retail promenade overlooking a 97-slip marina.
Awning fabricator Sunmaster of Naples had a little over three weeks to measure and fabricate 160 awnings and install them. The measuring of windows alone was catch-as-catch can, with Sunmaster dodging between the subcontactors on site as the condominium buildings were being built and finished. Special scaffolding was erected at water’s edge in some places, including at least one section of platforms that cantilevered out over the water to provide a base for lift cranes to perch in order to install awnings on the third floor units.