It took three go-rounds over five months, but longtime Palm Beach real estate agent Jim McCann and his interior designer wife, Sara, have gotten what they had hoped for from the town’s powerful Architectural Commission.
At its most recent meeting, the design board gave its seal of approval to a new house the McCanns plan to build for themselves at 217 Bahama Lane on the North End.
But the board’s vote to approve the project was split 4-3, with the majority praising the house as charming and a little quirky, and the dissenters saying the design needed more fine-tuning.
Architect Roger Janssen of Dailey Janssen Architects told commissioners he and his clients envisioned a “vernacular”-style house that would nod at homes that were built decades ago in Palm Beach.
With a stucco exterior, the front of the two-story house will feature a projecting front porch with an arched entrance; a prominent chimney breast; and small dormer windows over the two-car garage.
In all, the house will have 4,574 square feet of living space, inside and out.