An ocean-to-lake estate is recognized with its second Ballinger Award, thanks to a remarkable restoration.
By Darrel Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News
For the first time in history, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach’s coveted Robert I. Ballinger Award for historic restoration and renovation has recognized the same landmarked estate — albeit with the honors bestowed 30 years apart.
The 3.3 acre, ocean-to-lake estate at 1820 S. Ocean Blvd is home to Collado Hueco, a 1924 Mediterranean-style mansion designed by noted architect Addison Mizner, with a later guesthouse by another well-known Palm Beach architect, John L. Volk.
The 2025 Ballinger Award will be presented in early February to the couple who carried out the recently completed project at their home — businessman and art collector Peter Brand and his wife, former supermodel Stephanie Seymour.
Their 3 1/2-year effort preserved and strengthened the architecture while opening up many of the interior spaces to better suite the couple’s contemporary lifestyle and to showcase their collection of modern and contemporary art.
The Palm Beach Daily News is the first outlet to report the award.
The project was selected for the Ballinger Award by the Preservation Foundation’s Executive Committee, said President and CEO Amanda Skier.
Brand and Seymour’s commitment to the project “speaks to the constant reinvestment required to maintain oceanfront landmark properties,” Skier told the Daily News. “The recent restoration also reflects technological advances that have changed the way we live in and care for our homes.”
With more than 330 feet of ocean and Intracoastal Waterway frontage, the estate stands on the stretch of coastal road known to locals as Billionaires Row. The property lies about 1 1/2 miles south of the Mar-a-Lago Club, the home of President-elect Donald Trump.
Mizner’s exterior architecture combines Mediterranean- and Norman-style elements with a liberal use of coquina rock on the lower walls and half-timber details on the upper areas. The town granted the property landmark protection in 1990.
Because the lot has a downward slope from east to west, the rear of the mansion rises a full three stories with a prominent horizontal silhouette that appears to cascade toward the lake, recalling the look of “a Mediterranean village of many houses tumbling down a hillside to the sea,” as the late Polly Earl, a longtime executive director of the Preservation Foundation, once wrote.
Longtime Palm Beach residents, Brant and his wife bought the property through an ownership company in 2020 from the estate of the late shopping center mogul A. Alfred Taubman. Taubman and his wife, Judith, won the property’s first Ballinger Award in 1994 after carrying out a restoration project of their own.
After three decades, the latest project employed state-of-the-art restoration techniques and top-quality materials, according to the homeowners and design team. That team was headed by architect Patrick Segraves of the Palm Beach firm SKA Architect + Planner and French architect and interior designer Joseph Dirand of Joseph Dirand Architecture.
Much of the project involved reworking the interior of the Mizner mansion to give it a more contemporary feel while still complementing the historic architecture. But the work also included exterior restoration, structural reinforcement projects and new landscaping.
Brant is well known as an art collector, so protecting the artwork from excessive humidity and water intrusion was one of the key focuses of the restoration work. Security was also a priority.
To accomplish such goals, restoration architect Segraves designed projects to completely re-seal the house by rebuilding window and door frames as well as replacing the windows and the roof. Crews also rebuilt the foundation.
Although the Mizner house was the focus of the design team’s work, Segraves carried out minor projects at the Volk-designed guesthouse.
As the project unfolded, crews uncovered structural and other problems that had to be addressed, which expanded the budget, Brant told Skier in a filmed interview about the project.
“Once you’re in it, you have to complete it in the right way,” Brant said.
Dirand designed the interior architecture and decoration, using his signature minimalist style to highlight the art while playing off Mizner’s original architecture detailing in key rooms.
Inside the house, a major project completely overhauled the formerly dark and gloomy front entry area to open up the layout and brighten the space. Many of the home’s original Mediterranean-style details, including the generously proportioned living room’s beamed ceiling and Gothic-style fireplace, were preserved.
“It’s quite a spectacular room, but it’s presented in a very simple way,” Brant told Skier.
Dirand brought experienced workers over from France–no small feat, since much of the work was planned and executed during the COVID-19 pandemic–but also came to rely on skilled professionals in the Palm Beach area.
In the filmed interview, Dirand said his mission was to translate Mizner’s architectural vocabulary with “my own interpretation of what I brought to the project to give it new life.” Brant, in turn, praised Dirand as a “minimalist (who) is really in love with the refinement of opulence in the simplest way.”
Rogers General Contracting of West Palm Beach oversaw the construction, and New York City-based landscape architect Madison Cox designed the grounds.
The main house originally was built by contractor Cooper Lightbown for clients Fanny Moore, a Cleveland industrial heiress, and her husband, Paul.
Since 1999, Brant and Seymour have owned another landmarked house in Palm Beach at 245 Dunbar Road. Known as Buttonwood and built between 1903 and 1905, it was renovated and restored by the previous owners, Betsy and Michael Kaiser, a project that was honored with a Ballinger Award in 1992.