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According to Kean, who has become something of a showcase home guru, he approaches every project by asking a simple question: “Would I want to live there?”
DESIGN THAT’S UPSIDE-DOWN Phil Kean’s New American Home is like a treehouse, except it offers way more luxuries to accompany the spectacular Winter Park vistas. BY RANDY NOLES PHOTOGRAPHY BY UNEEK IMAGE
16 W I N T E R P A R K M A G A ZI N E | SUM M ER 2021
f anyone knows about the potential pitfalls of highprofile showcase homes, it’s Phil Kean, president of Winter Park-based Phil Kean Design Group. Kean’s team has designed and built four such homes, and Kean was the architect on one other. “It’s an adrenaline rush, doing these homes,” says Kean, 59, who was among the first builders to introduce sleek, modern residential architecture to a city where more traditional genres had long predominated. “It’s fun and cool because you’re using all these new products that people haven’t seen yet. Not everybody’s into that, but I am.” Showcase homes are the centerpiece of the International Builders’ Show (IBS), sponsored by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB). The projects are intended to demonstrate the latest technologies and most leading-edge building materials for the confab’s 65,000-plus attendees. IBS descends upon Orlando and Las Vegas in alternating years. For nearly four decades, there’s been a New American Home — and more recently a New American Remodel — for attendees to scrutinize and real estate writers to critique. That fact alone is daunting enough. But the 2021 New American Home — located near the corner of Morse Boulevard and Pennsylvania Avenue alongside The Coop restaurant in Winter Park — was under construction during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages hampered progress, while construction crews had to observe social distancing and practice other unaccustomed safety measures while racing against the clock to complete the home in time for its worldwide debut. As the virus persisted, however, the in-person show — slated for February at the Orange County Convention Center — was canceled and held virtually. Consequently, the 2021 New American Home could only be seen by taking an online 3D tour accessible to registrants via the IBS website. Perhaps cancellation of the show was a mixed blessing since, pandemic be damned, most builders were much too busy churning out homes to spend a week cavorting in Orlando. One of the anomalies of this health crisis has been a booming real estate market even during COVID-19’s prevaccine rampage. But that’s another story altogether. In any case, New American Homes have been over-the-top mansions on sprawling suburban homesites. Impressive, perhaps, but risky for the builder, who must sell to recoup his or her costs. Kean’s project, however, is a dandy departure from the norm — and likely won’t be on the market long. It’s a vertical three-level structure on a 1,969-square-
The 2021 New American Home (facing page) is centrally located in picture-postcard Winter Park’s downtown corridor. The three-level structure, which encompasses 5,536 square feet counting the terraces, was originally intended to be two smaller adjacent townhomes. Kean, however, decided to combine the units based on customer feedback.
