Home as a work in progress

The Levines have owned the same Bel Mar Shores house for three decades - well, maybe not exactly the same house.

By JANET ZINK
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 30, 2002

SOUTH TAMPA -- Gail and Arnold Levine have lived in their Bel Mar Shores home for more than 30 years, but it's far from the same house they moved into back in the '70s. It's been renovated three times with the help of Tampa architect Sol Fleischman Jr. and has been transformed from a ho-hum waterfront ranch house built in the 1950s into a bright and airy showpiece.

It borrows elements from a variety of classic architectural styles -- Victorian, Florida bungalow and Cape Cod, to name a few -- and the result is a home with a look that defies pigeonholing, inside and out.

Fleischman calls it "early miscellaneous."

"It happened because Gail likes a lot of detail and kind of sweet architecture," he says. "Whether it's columns, brackets, dormers, trellises or flower boxes."

For the first remodel, done in the 1970s, the Levines turned a patio into a dining room with a flat ceiling and four skylights and reconfigured a spare bedroom that could be entered only by walking through a bathroom.

The second renovation involved adding a den, bathroom and spacious walk-in closet to the master bedroom. To replace a support wall, Fleischman designed an arch in the middle of the master bedroom that separates the sitting and sleeping areas. Faux marble covers the crown molding and doors and accents the arch in the middle of the room.

Then, three years ago, Gail Levine was struck for the third time by a need for change.

"I walked through the house in the middle of the night and thought if I did this, then this and this, it would be perfect," she says. "One of the things that drove me crazy for the past 30 years was that you couldn't see the water from the kitchen."

Built-in cabinets in the kitchen were removed and two doorways were carved out of the wall to provide a view of the water and access to what would become the dining room. Now, the water can be seen from nearly every room in the house.

The kitchen was enlarged to accommodate a rust-colored center island topped with white marble. The island was painted to match the knobs on a Franklin stove that Levine ultimately could not install in the kitchen because it couldn't be properly vented.

A window seat is nestled in front of leaded glass.

"In the morning, rainbows of light come through the window," Levine says.

The living room was extended and a patio was added to the back. The dining room (once a porch) was turned into a den with a cathedral ceiling. Builder Cliff Fernandez of Dolphin Homes, says Levine did an excellent job of making the new roof flow into the old one.

After the most recent renovation, which was completed two years ago, Gail Levine was happy enough with the facade to remove the tall hedge that had blocked the view of the house from the street.

Now, blue plumbago, yellow lantana and pink and red pentas in window boxes splash color against the home's white exterior. Fake dormers with fish-scale siding add interest to the roof line, and pillars framing the back patio create majesty without sacrificing warmth.

Gail Levine, an interior designer, created a space that is eclectic, arty, playful and welcoming. Rich English florals blend with bright plaids and wild animal prints. Leopard cushions stalk the dining room chairs, and a zebra skin rug warms the wood floor.

A cat bowl and lamp with an elephant-shaped base decorate a table in the den, where a 4-foot-tall bear waves from a corner. Monkeys swing from the chandelier in the TV room and two dog statues guard the dining room fireplace.

"I have so many animals around, but it's good because they're animals you don't have to feed," Levine quips.

Levine's first design clients were friends who liked her style. After working 10 years as buyer and manager of the gift shop at the Tampa Museum of Art, she left her job to focus on her own business.

Her love of art is apparent. Her home holds everything from a whimsically painted wooden high chair to Native American photogravures and works by Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Jim Dine and Chuck Close. Much of the artwork came from GraphicStudio at the University of South Florida, and other pieces were collected during the couple's travels around the world.

"The wonderful thing about this home and the renovation is that we moved out for a year, and when we moved back in and started unpacking our things everything started to flow and have a place," Levine says.

A table that began as a temporary resting place for a collection of shells and decorative rocks became a permanent display.

When working with clients, Levine incorporates pieces they have owned for years. She's not one to throw everything out and begin anew.

"I have an appreciation for things that are inherited," she says. "That's what makes a home interesting."

She's not averse to collecting artifacts for clients.

Artwork she purchased in France waits for the right place to call home.

She believes a home should be a work in progress, and it should be lived in while determining what to put where.

"The house has a personality all its own," she says. "And you realize that when you're in it."

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