Rainy season in Nosara, Costa Rica, stretches for seven months. The climate, with its inexorable humidity and salt air, wreaks havoc on building materials and quotidian staples like rugs and books. Termites and ants are constantly on the march, and the power grid occasionally goes down. Reshma Patel and her husband, Christian Rudder, a cofounder of the online dating site OkCupid, know all about the struggle. In 2020, the couple decamped from New York City to Costa Rica with their daughter, Plum, for what was initially meant to be a one-year sojourn. But the Edenic landscape proved irresistible, and the family decided to put down roots. “We wanted to learn how to live in harmony with nature, so we decided that we were going to be okay with the ants and power outages and all the rest,” Patel says. “It’s a really brave thing to build a home in the jungle,” she adds. “You can try to keep it at bay, but the jungle always finds a way in.”
To realize their vision of equatorial domestic bliss, Patel and Rudder engaged Tyler Polich and Jessica Jimenez Keenan of the recently launched Los Angeles design studio Years, along with local architect Jean Andre Garnier of Garnier Arquitectos. Polich (whose résumé includes the AD100 firms Diller Scofidio + Renfro, The Archers, and Bjarke Ingels Group) and Jimenez Keenan (an alumna of Elizabeth Roberts Architects and Studio Shamshiri) originally met the homeowners in New York while working on projects for Patel’s erstwhile Williamsburg jewelry boutique Quiet Storms. “We immediately clicked with Tyler and Jessica, and we wanted to carry forward all the trust and fun we had,” Patel recalls.
Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
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Denne historien er fra May 2024-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Top of the Heap
Putting stone scraps to fresh use, Studio Raw Material mines the rich traditions of India’s western plains
Raising the Bar
With Italian homages and glamour galore, The Manner ushers in a new era of high-end hospitality
Green Acres
At Longwood Gardens, a bold update unearths wisdom old and new
Ahead of the Curves
A sinuous house by Snøhetta and Nicole Hollis dares to be different
Starting From Scratch
At the Manhattan home of designer Shawn Henderson, a blank slate gives way to a masterful mix of marvels, textures, and moods
ICONS ONLY
In Bridgehampton, artist Daniel Arsham finds his groove within a rectilinear home designed by Jack Ceglic
gaining
To update an underutilized landscape at Dia Beacon, Sara Zewde is digging into history, championing resiliency, and leaning into beauty
STYLE SUMMIT
Lauren Santo Domingo enlists Andre Mellone to help fashion a sophisticated ski retreat that defies tired decorative tropes
LIVING THE DREAM
In a historic London house, a stylish couple turn to Veere Grenney to help bring their vision to life
LABOR OF LOVE
With heroic help from around the world and an army of outstanding artisans, engineers, and architects, Notre-Dame de Paris prepares to reopen its doors TEXT