Sarasota needed a hero to save one of its most important landmarks.
It got a team of them.
Over the past 18 years, three couples have steadfastly maintained and improved the aging house in their care. And now, the third couple, Anne and Bob Essner, have completed the mission — restoring the full shading structure to famed architect Paul Rudolph’s iconic Umbrella House in Lido Shores.
The house and umbrella were built in 1953-54 as an experiment to see how a large wooden trellis could both shade a house in the subtropics and at the same time make an architectural statement. But it also taught a valuable lesson about building along the Florida coast: It was not strong enough, and was almost entirely destroyed by a tropical storm in the 1960s.
The Umbrella House, built in 1953 by Phil Hiss and designed by Paul Rudolph. The landmark's restoration is complete following the rebuilding of the shading structure at the rear of the house. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 1-19-2015.
For more than 40 years, the house sat as an odd box topped by a few remaining beams from the original umbrella. At one time, it even had a mansard roof.
“Like a clown hat,” Bob Essner said.
The box was showing its age when Gary and Carol Stover paid Ross and Rachel Van Tilborg $250,000 for it in 1997. The Stovers restored the interior as closely as they could to the original, but could only dream that one day the umbrella would stand again.
“Whoever puts the umbrella back on the house will enjoy remarkable exposure in the media and be remembered for that,” said Gary Stover in 2005.
That opportunity fell to Vince and Julie Ciulla, who bought the house for $1.2 million that year.
The Ciullas rebuilt “phase 1” of the umbrella, which covers the house with about 4 feet of overhang, but had to leave rebuilding the entire structure to the next “heroes.”
Bob and Anne Essner own the Umbrella House and a second Paul Rudolph-designed home, the Harkavy House, in Lido Shores. They bought the Umbrella House a year ago and completed the rebuilding of the shading "umbrella"; the original was knocked down by a storm in the 1960s. Staff photo / Harold Bubl; 1-7-2016.
Enter Bob and Anne Essner, who lived across Westway Drive and also owned Rudolph’s Harkavy House a couple blocks away on Morningside Drive for use as a guest house and study.
They didn’t really know what was across the street at first.
“At that point, we had very little appreciation for the history of the neighborhood and the modernist architecture,” Bob Essner said.
Then they bought the Harkavy House, built in 1957, and came to understand the midcentury modern genius of Paul Rudolph.
“We didn’t buy it because it was a Paul Rudolph House,” he said. “We bought it because we liked it and the space was great for what I wanted. I spent a lot of time in that house and I started to appreciate what it was and how you felt when you were in it. The aesthetics of the house rub off on your mood.”
So when the Essners heard in 2014 that the Ciullas were thinking of selling the Umbrella House, Bob Essner started talking to Vinny Ciulla. The house never went on the MLS.
“We talked a long time before we consummated something,” Bob Essner said. “We made a pre-emptive offer.” It sold for $1.6 million.
“I have known three owners of the house, and they were all good stewards,” said architect Greg Hall, who oversaw the restoration effort. “The Stollers, Ciullas and the Essners. It is there today, and if any one of them hadn’t done what they needed to, it wouldn’t be there today.
“So we can be thankful for the provenance. The Essners, in particular, have quite an eye and an understanding for design. They went out and brought in the furniture and the artwork that brings it more to its original period.”
“We don’t want to be heroes,” Bob Essner said. “But we live across the street, and we have the other Rudolph house, which I came to appreciate, so I thought this deserved to be restored and preserved. To see it every day, I would have hated the thought of someone coming in and buying it and substantially altering it or tearing it down, adding to it or subtracting from it, which would be very likely.”
A new privacy wall is not so high as to block the view of the Umbrella House from John Ringling Parkway. The house reveals itself to visitors in stages. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 1-19-2016.
Phil Hiss bought the spit of sand that is now Lido Shores in 1950. A renaissance man, he believed that houses could be suitable for the humid climate of the barrier islands. Modernism was his choice.
To design these homes, he turned to Paul Rudolph, Tim Seibert and even himself. Being the young star of American architecture in the 1950s, Rudolph was chosen to design a model home for Lido Shores. It had to attract attention from motorists on John Ringling Parkway, and it had to generate ink in the architectural journals.
The Umbrella House accomplished both. But it also was an experiment. Rudolph was designing a U.S. Embassy for Amman, Jordan, at the time, and his scheme had a heavy masonry shading structure, like an Arab tent that hovered over the building by a few feet. In his 2014 book, “The Architecture of Paul Rudolph,” scholar Timothy Rohan describes how Rudolph tested the concept with the Umbrella House.
Rohan describes it as “one of Rudolph’s most memorable, iconic houses.”
The Umbrella House, built in 1953 by Phil Hiss and designed by Paul Rudolph. The landmark's restoration is complete following the rebuilding of the shading structure at the rear of the house. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 1-19-2015.
“Rudolph designed several intriguing, spatially complex projects during this period that were unified by a great hovering sunshade,” said Bradenton architect Joe King, co-author of “Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses.” “The SAE Fraternity House, Haywood Apartments and the U.S. Embassy in Jordan were not built, so we’ll never experience those projects beyond imagining being there through Rudolph’s drawings.
“In contrast, the Umbrella House has been celebrated and enjoyed for decades for its light, airy subtropical feeling of space and material. And now with rebuilding the umbrella, the full extent of the experience and Rudolph’s intentions are complete again.”
The Essners, who have decorated it with midcentury modern furniture and Bob Essner’s large-format photography, plan to use the historically designated and oft-photographed Umbrella House as “a party house.” An upstairs bedroom has been converted into a digital photo studio with large-format printer.
Anne and Bob Essner have decorated the Umbrella House with midcentury modern furniture. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 1-7-2016.
“From the day they purchased the home, Bob and Anne Essner have been passionate about the restoration of the house and the umbrella canopy,” said Janet Minker, who lives a few doors down Westway Drive. “They’ve enjoyed sourcing and collecting the midcentury furnishings and adding their artwork and personal touches.”
The Sarasota Architectural Foundation, of which the Essners are members and Minker is president, will use the house “a lot,” said Anne Essner. “Two or three tours a week are here now; charitable events for organizations we are involved with.”
“SAF receives calls and emails daily asking for tours of Paul Rudolph’s iconic homes, especially the Umbrella House,” Minker said.
“It will just be here,” Anne Essner said. “There is no grand design.”
No, the grand design is outside, standing once more.
“The owners, architect, and contractor (Howell Construction Group),” said Joe King, “have given a real gift to the art of architecture.”
