The house presented Dirand with a real puzzle. Asymmetrical, it spreads across multiple wings, varying from one to three levels. The main entertaining rooms had retained their original character, while the entrance and stair hall were dark and enclosed. Dirand set out to let the sunlight that moves across the house reach every part of the interior as much as possible. The collection shaped Dirand’s approach too. With so many treasured works coming into the house, the team wanted to ensure they would be protected against anything the unpredictable Florida weather could bring. What began as a renovation became, in Dirand’s words, “a reconstruction saving the historical.” Rather than demolishing and starting again, the team kept the historic walls standing, reinforced every one of them, and dug beneath to take the foundations deeper. New hurricane-proof windows were set into concrete frames, the roof was removed and rebuilt, and the original tiles and the patina of the plaster fireplace were carefully preserved. The project took about four years. Throughout, Dirand immersed himself in Mizner’s doors, ceilings, and patterns so that the new rooms would be a true homage rather than a copy.
Early on, Brant handed Dirand two thick binders, one of artworks and one of design pieces. “This is what you can use,” he said. A few days later, on holiday with his family, Dirand spread every page across the floors. “I was walking on the paper,” he says. It reversed the usual order in which the architect designs the rooms and the art arrives afterward. Here the collection came first, though never rigidly, because “a collection is also something that is alive.”
