ESSENTIALS
Firm Name: Seibert Architects
Principal: Michael Epstein
Headquarters: 1373 Fifth Street, Sarasota, Florida
Accolades: Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Top 200 Residential Architects,” 2025; Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Best-in-State Residential Architects,” 2025.
House Name: Mhouse South
Location: Sarasota, Florida
Area & Layout: 2,560 square feet, 2BR, 4BA; 512 square feet, studio/office
Architectural Photographer: Ryan Gamma (@rgammaphoto)
“Architects building in relatively warm climates have a special responsibility and contribution to make… The Deep South, because of its relatively warm climate, its impressive architectural heritage and its deep love of the good life, can contribute a unique quality.”
—Paul Rudolph (1918–1997), Architect
Oh, to be on the radiant quartz beaches of Sarasota County, Florida, in the blue-skies-glorious late-winter to spring months. Or, more precisely, to maximize that experience by retreating at day’s end to a beachhouse of one’s very own. But what kind of house would it be—rather, for this particular stretch of the Gulf Coast, what should it be, experientially and as an investment?
For the architect of houses, Florida’s Gulf Coast is among the most demanding and risk-prone of climatic settings in all of the U.S., requiring as it does an extremist’s emphasis on the building’s own “self-awareness” and intelligence factor, especially in relation to sun control and flooding and stormwater management. Architect Michael Epstein—who has practiced here since joining, in the 1980s, the late Sarasota School legend Tim Seibert’s celebrated firm, Seibert Architects—brings an exceptional, if not incomparable, degree of discernment to the challenge.
But what makes this architect’s work worthy of national attention and contributed to the firm’s landing on the list of Forbes Top Residential Architects in America 2025, is how a Seibert Architects house rises to the elevated occasion of high-art architecture. And how it does so while also managing—as too few houses do—to be both “smart” and “comfortable” simultaneously. Of course, photography can’t possibly capture the complexities of that whole story. But fortunately, in this instance, it comes close.
RICHARD OLSEN, Forbes Senior Editor, Architecture: In terms of scale, scope and identity, how does this project fit into your overall body of residential work?
MICHAEL EPSTEIN: Our designs continue to be rooted in the regional Modernist work that our firm, along with a handful of others, became famous for in the mid-century era, known as the Sarasota School of Design—Modern designs suited for the Florida coastal climate, now often referred to as Tropical Modern. We have designed many projects which are substantially smaller, some larger, and some remodeling or additions to existing residences. Whether a new house or modifications to an existing house, it is not the size of the project that attracts us, but the promise of a meaningful end result. Even though, true to the firm’s Modernist roots, we work diligently to ensure that the end result captures the spirit of the owners and responds to its immediate context. As a result, the look of the houses that we design can vary considerably from one to the next.
OLSEN: Creatively, from a design problem-solving viewpoint, what are a few of the most satisfying solutions that came together here?
MICHAEL EPSTEIN: The decision to arrange the spaces within the house around an elevated courtyard created a captured outdoor space that maintainins privacy and allows interior spaces and the courtyard to become a part of each other, both visually and functionally. The circular hole at the entry porch and in the roof overhang in the courtyard, as well as the floating circular mirrors in the master bath, provide a needed counterpoint to the rectilinear forms of the house and soften the overall effect of the house, just enough. While a small detail, the shower seats do not touch the surrounding walls, and appear to have no support or attachment, giving the illusion that they hover in place. Makes me smile every time I see them.
OLSEN: And what’s next for the studio?
MICHAEL EPSTEIN: We will continue to focus on solutions that maximize the benefit of what the site has to offer and can enrich the lives of occupants. Since Mhouse, we completed another large residence, on a heavily vegetated site, which takes advantage of the surrounding vegetation in a variety of ways. We are currently working on a new design for a large house that is focused on capturing both near and distant views of the bay. In contrast to these, we are also in progress on a very small house nestled into a natural setting, which is open to its surroundings and exposes its structure and the materials of its construction both inside and out.
ABOVE: The front of the house, as viewed from a private roadway. “Windows provide views into the existing trees—the large window area on the right side of the front,” says Epstein, “frames the view of the existing vegetation at the south property line, enhancing the living room and stairwell experience.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: “This is the front entry, with a steel stair up to the living level,” Epstein says. “The wood element seen in the upper right is the back side of the ‘floating’ walnut credenza that replaces the need for a railing at the edge of the living room above.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: “This is the living area of the main space,” says the architect, “looking south across the stairwell below. The custom ‘floating’ walnut credenza conceals a television that rises up out of the stone top. The extension of the space frames the existing vegetation along the south property line, creating a vegetative boundary for the living area inside.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: As Epstein notes, “The main space, looking north toward the dining and kitchen, has walnut cabinetry that echoes the credenza at the opposite end of the room. Pocketing doors at each side of the vertical wall of kitchen built-ins (shown in open position) provide access to the laundry and pantry areas behind.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: The studio/office, with its walnut cabinetry and high windows allowing views of existing mature vegetation at the rear of the site, while blocking the view of the house in the rear. “Thematically,” says Epstein, “every space in this house includes views into vegetation as a part of it.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: The primary-bedroom wing. “With its roll-down shades in the open position,” adds the architect, “the space enjoys a high degree of openness to the courtyard and vegetation beyond.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: A vanity in the primary suite. “The walnut vanity,” says Epstein, “stretches side to side in front of floor-to-ceiling windows, with operable windows behind the two custom round mirrors on slide bars for height adjustment when needed. These windows bring natural light into the primary bath, with a view into screening vegetation for privacy. Guest baths enjoy similar features.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: “A view from the main space, which contains the dining and living areas, looking east across the courtyard and toward the studio and office at the rear of the site,” says the architect. “The studio/office mass conceals the house on the adjacent lot at the rear of the site. The office doubles as an extra guest suite, with a murphy bed in the wall behind the large artwork.”
Ryan Gamma
ABOVE: The rear courtyard against a western sky backdrop at dusk. “The glassed-in guest hallway to the left side of the courtyard acts as a gallery, enhancing the courtyard experience,” Epstein says. “The open sliding-glass doors at the living and dining space beyond allow for indoor/outdoor living when the weather is right.”
Ryan Gamma
More from Forbes House of the Week
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardolsen/2026/02/28/forbes-house-of-the-week-tropical-modern/
