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Now showing: two designer condos

The Florida West Coast Symphony raises the curtain on this year's show house season with luxurious, colorful spaces overlooking the water.

By JUDY STARK
Published February 5, 2005

OSPREY - The winter designer show house circuit starts today when the doors open on two luxury condominiums in Osprey.

The eighth-floor unit at the Meridian at the Oaks Preserve is billed as a "sophisticated haven," with formal furniture and lush fabrics. The fifth-floor unit in the building next door is "the urban retreat," with lighter colors and a modern feel. The condos, with square footage of 2,600 and 2,790, respectively, have views over Little Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

The 30th annual Symphony Designer Showcase benefits the Florida West Coast Symphony and its youth orchestra.

This week, electricians were hanging chandeliers and ceiling fans, and designers were wrestling furniture into place and awaiting the arrival of the last few pieces, rethinking their choices - different bedspread? flowers or no? - and strolling the rooms to see what the others had done.

"This room is for the young woman in that portrait," said Donna Cavallaro of Drexel Heritage, indicating an oil painting of a young woman with a cello that stands in the formal living room of the eighth-floor unit. "Someone who's used to the finer things in life." She and her design team chose gold and burgundy against white walls "because it's so rich and elegant." They arranged the furniture, in silks, tapestries and brocades, to avoid obstructing the water view. They filled a curve-fronted china cabinet with candles and white coral.

In the more casual fifth-floor condominium, designer Lance Licciardi borrowed his color palette from popular fashion colors to create a master bedroom in pink to appeal to men as well as women. "A lot of guys are wearing pink shirts and pink ties, so I wanted to pre-predict that we'll see a lot of pink in home fashions," he said.

It's a clean, cool shade, not a sticky cotton candy color, and he cut the richness with vanilla and a lot of black: in stacked iron etageres on both sides of the bed, lampshades and a pair of black leather cylindrical pillows. A pair of Philippe Starck "Louis Ghost" chairs in Plexiglas, two pink leather poufs at the foot of the bed and a chest of drawers underscore a contemporary French scheme.

On the other side of the condo, Sybill L. Johnson draped chocolate-colored fabric over bamboo poles and created a wall sculpture of bamboo and stones. It makes a different way to get from one end of a hall to the other.

The showcase continues through Feb. 27.

What: Florida West Coast Symphony Designer Showcase

When: Through Feb. 27. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $20

Where: Meridian at the Oaks Preserve, Osprey. From Interstate 75, take Exit 205 and drive west on Clark Road to U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail). Turn south. Pass the Sarasota Square/Westfield Shoppingtown mall on the left. A mile and a half south of the mall, turn right at the traffic light onto North Point Road and follow signs to the Meridian towers and the show house units.

Information: Call (941) 685-0425.

[Last modified February 4, 2005, 11:03:08]