Designer of Funky Fish House influenced by sea

August 14, 2009

From the time he was a boy, nature and the sea - its changes, its colors, its timelessness - have always had a powerful influence on Steve Turner.

He embraced it as a youth, painted it as a young artist, and today its influence gives excitement, variety and adventure to his architectural work.

Turner is the artist, designer and one half of the creative team behind the Funky Fish House project, a first-of-its-kind Cape Coral cottage community under construction at Cape Harbour's Marina.

It is Realmark Development President Will Stout's longtime association with the artist and home designer that began the two talking of such a concept and ultimately resulted in Turner and his company, Steven B. Turner Designs, creating the overall design plan.

There was no question of Turner's participation. After all, Stout was more than pleased with Turner's success at designing his Cape Harbour residential and commercial development project.

Turner is now overseeing the architectural design phase of construction for Stout's fish house on Lot 19, and the three-story cottage of another excited client on another lot along the marina waterway.

The personality of the client factors into Turner's resulting design plan. He strives for the ideals of space, form, functionality and timelessness in his renderings, and he completes his work with creative brush strokes of soft, muted colors derived from nature's bounty.

It was Stout who brought his attention to the tiny boathouses that populated the lakes and shores of North Carolina.

"It was a combination of those and the houses I saw around the Key West area (which served as the impetus for the cottage concept here)," he said.

"We encompassed the boat house ideas with the Key West ideas we had and threw around the idea of calling them Funky Fish Houses,'' Turner said. "We talked about actually building some of these homes. Looking at those little houses (in Key West), all jammed in next to each other with their ornate gates and architectural styles, they're so unique. It's almost as if Hemmingway himself would have envisioned something like this along the water's edge, something he would have done."

Inspired by the old homes of Key West, Turner uses the same images reshuffled to accommodate a new generation of homeowners.

His new space is complimented by lots of windows, balconies, observations decks, cupola rooms, walkways with ornate entry gates and first floor living levels with decks that extend, in some cases, up to 25 feet over the water.

One design recently completed features a three-story with amenities such as a 14-foot high garage, enough space to accommodate two cars and perhaps a motorcycle; a third floor master suite with a morning kitchen and bypass door, which opens into a master sitting room with full bath, a room which could double as another bedroom; a cantilevered balcony off the master suite extends 18 feet across the back of the cottage; and a unique spiral staircase accesses an observation deck at roof level to take in the spectacular sunsets and coastal views.

There is something divine about nature and the Key West lifestyle, one that he works hard at capturing in his final cottage renderings.

"This (design) is so unique the way it butts up to the water with its scalloped trim and ornate gates. It reminds me of taking 'old town' Key West and updating it and sticking it on the water's edge,'' Turner said.

Turner's Funky Fish House cottage community portfolio contains the typical elevation designs for the two-, three- and four-story cottages, front and waterside, along with the concept of the village units and overall roadway plan and building footprints for all 19 fish house building sites.

To help new owners create their individual homes that will make up the neighborhood are Realmark's selected team of professional builders including Marino Construction Group Inc., Island Development LLC, Marvin Development Corporation, Tudor Villas Construction, Wyman Stokes Builder Inc., Paul Homes, PGI Homes and Florida Lifestyle Homes of Fort Myers Inc.

As for Turner, his goal is to work to enhance the image of Cape Harbour, and to design, draw and contribute to the individualistic nature of the community.

His hopes are that more developers and homeowners will commission his work to carry on his efforts at creating what he envisions as being one of the most distinctive communities in Southwest Florida.