BEST ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS By G P SCHAFER

BEST ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS By G P SCHAFER- Award-winning architect G P Schafer, AIA has focused his career on residential projects for the past thirty years. Prior to establishing G. P. Schafer Architect, PLLC in 2002, Gil worked in several distinguished traditional residential architecture practices including Ferguson Murray & Shamamian Architects, where he remained for nearly a decade, and worked on large-scale projects in places including Tulsa, Palm Beach, and Nashville. In fact, over the course of his career, Gil’s work has involved him in projects in numerous and varied locations around the country and abroad, and in scales ranging from under 1,000 square feet to nearly 40,000 square feet.

A New Coastal Residence – Hobe Sound, Florida

HIDDEN BEHIND A THICKET OF SEA GRAPES on a generous lot located just off the ocean in Hobe Sound, Florida, this new 5-bedroom residence was designed for longtime clients—a couple with three college-age daughters. Inspired by the casual elegance of Anglo-Caribbean architecture, we designed the house with a sense of understated sophistication, family tradition, and the clients’ vibrant color sense, anchored by the property’s lush tropical foliage.

A Barn Cottage – Coast of Maine

THE LAND WAS ORIGINALLY part of a large, turn-of-the-century estate that stretched from a hilltop above the site all the way down to the water below it. Our clients purchased the lower lot of the recently subdivided property, and we designed a cottage and outbuildings for the site to be sheltered from the adjacent houses by organizing all of the structures around a small farm court as if these buildings had once been part of the old estate. This allowed us to create a unique and private experience on an otherwise open street by focusing views into the new farm courtyard, up to the rising wooded hillside to the west, and out to the sea down below the compound to the east.

A New Residence – Southern Georgia

6,000 ACRE PROPERTY of pine woodland, cypress swamp, and pecan groves in southern Georgia is the setting for this new residence, which serves as the centerpiece for the property’s entertaining and agricultural life for a family from New York. Built on the site of a 1940’s hunting cabin overlooking a 19th-century gristmill pond, the house, for which we designed both the architecture and interior decoration, was conceived with a deliberate nod to the historic properties of the region and with a clear reverence for the traditions of South Georgia’s “shooting properties.”

Editor’s Choice

Gala II Suspension

A Japanese-Inspired
Yoga & Meditation Retreat – Maine

PART OF AN EXPANSIVE SUMMER RETREAT we designed for sophisticated clients in coastal Maine, this 650-square foot yoga and meditation studio was originally conceived as a rustic, barn-like interior, inspired by the rural vernacular architecture of the area.

Editor’s Choice

Shard Suspension

Renovation of a Pre-War Park Avenue Apartment

A TAXI RIDE HOME after a wedding proved to be a serendipitous event for Gil, when he found himself sharing a ride and talking architecture with the stylish, talented art consultant Will Kopelman who was considering renovating his classical, old-world, pre-war apartment to better suit his young family and busy life. Collaborating closely with Will, GPSA reconfigured and renovated portions of the four-bedroom Park Avenue apartment, re-thinking the main family living spaces, and focusing the new layout around an expansive, light-filled kitchen, which now serves as the family’s main gathering place.

Rejuvenation of a Historic House – San Francisco

LOCATED ON AN IDYLLIC, TREE-LINED STREET in San Francisco’s prestigious Presidio Heights neighborhood, this four-story, brick Italianate hous e was originally built in 1907 for the Sutro family and offers breathtaking views of the Presidio Park and the Golden Gate Bridge beyond.

GPSA’s New Offices Overlooking Union Square

With large windows overlooking the bustling green market below, space sits right at tree level, allowing for a sense of nature no matter the season and flooding the interior with natural light. Our goal was to give the office a residential feel and be a place that our clients, our collaborators, and our staff could come to feel welcome, to work, and to be inspired. Ultimately, we wanted our new space to serve as an evocative backdrop for the architectural and design work we are doing all over the country.

A House by the Sea – Brooklin, Maine

WHEN GIL FIRST STUMBLED UPON THIS HOUSE, which sits right at the water’s edge in coastal Maine, it was just by chance. After waiting too long to secure a summer vacation rental, there weren’t many options, but this nondescript near-A-frame—built in 1992 and with almost no architectural character whatsoever—was all that was available and so he took it, planning to spend only a couple weeks there.

NEW 11,000 SQUARE FOOT RESIDENCE, perched on the shore of Lake Placid in the Adirondacks, was designed for an active family whose lives revolve around the sporting pastimes of this resort community—skiing in the winter months and boating and water sports in the summers.

The Garden At Middlefield – Dutchess County, New York

THE GARDEN AT GIL’S HOUSE IN THE HUDSON VALLEY, aptly named Middlefield for its siting in the midst of an old farm field, was a personal project for Gil—and one of his early collaborations with long-time friend and landscape designer Deborah Nevins.