Situated north of downtown Sarasota in the Central Cocoanut neighborhood, this project explores how best to subdivide an oversized lot to develop two separate spec homes. Built in the early 1950’s, the existing house was constructed in the middle of a generous corner lot with a large amount of unused space surrounding the structure. Wanting to take full advantage of the lot’s potential, our client proposed splitting the lot in half to create two separate parcels for a future developer.

To better understand the best way to subdivide the corner lot, our office conducted an initial feasibility study to ensure the proposed division would enable roughly the same amount of buildable area for the resulting narrower lots. Rather than having both subdivided lots face the same direction, the split allowed each to orient towards a different street. These constraints enabled our office to develop an initial massing study for the houses, with the goal of creating complimentary structures that each have their own private backyard.

The proposed design resulted in a simple first floor massing that contains the living spaces and opens up towards the private backyard. A gabled second floor cantilevers over the first floor, housing all the bedrooms and an open office overlooking a double-height dining room. The proposed layout used on one lot is mirrored in the other to maximize efficiencies during construction and creates a clean, welcoming product that can be built on spec.