During her visit to a property in Ladue two years ago, the architect Ann Wimsatt took it all in: the surrounding dense woods, a lovely tree-lined creek, that wraparound porch with—in her words—a South Pacific vibe. Set on a steep hill, the rambling 1930s shingle-style house unfolds across a terrace. “It’s a powerful landscape, isn’t it?” says Wimsatt, the owner of Cite Studio, during an interview from her home in San Francisco earlier this year.
Back in 2021, when she met Dawn and Mark Sturmon at their house for the first time, the family of four was undergoing a shift in priorities. Mark had recently sold his family business and taken an early retirement. Dawn, a self-described social butterfly, had grown into a happy homebody. COVID had helped stall a busy life of fundraisers, gallery events, and restaurant openings, but this transition was something more. Watching their two young boys grow into teenagers had made Dawn realize the quick passage of time–and how much she craved more togetherness at home. A new backyard pool house, she mused, could be a place to gather, as well as a guest house for family members who live elsewhere and planned to visit. “We envisioned a getaway in our own backyard,” she recalls.
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A mutual friend introduced the Sturmons to Wimsatt, who in turn recommended Joe Bennett of Bennett Construction. The goal of the project was to emphasize the shingle-style look of the main house but in a modern way—one that reflected Dawn’s love of the Eastern seaboard and Wimsatt’s interest in the work of the architect Charles Gwathmey, with whom she studied in 1980. “I absolutely love his 1967 house in Amagansett,” she says of the tall, simple box with geometric features. Mark and Dawn, whom Wimsatt describes as modern people with a contemporary sensibility, were hooked on the aesthetic. Built with charcoal gray shingles, white trim, and a bronze-colored steel roof, the home features an oculus inspired by the work of artist James Turrell and Wimsatt’s love of the Pantheon in Rome, which she’s visited and sketched dozens of times. “I absolutely love that oculus—the way the sun moves inside the architecture,” she says of the Sturmon pool house.
But it was another architectural feature—a covered bridge connecting the main house’s porch with the second floor of the pool house—that really got the project started. Bennett, a devoted craftsman with experience in structural engineering, signed on to the project right away when he saw the plans. From Wimsatt’s point of view, a bridge would help ease the challenge of traversing the hilly landscape from the front of the house to a beautiful cove in the backyard. Today, the bridge provides the owners with an unexpected bonus room. “I didn’t know what to expect of that space,” says Dawn. “I didn’t realize it was going to be a room. I didn’t realize it was going to be a sun-splashed, plant-filled, sky-high-ceiling room. It’s like the cherry on top.” She filled it with vintage finds, artwork by Jennifer Ament, and a church bench that has been in the family through two houses and painted three different colors. An arched entryway opens to a large living area with a wall of windows that deliver meditative views of the pool. A thicket of greenery shields the house from neighboring homes.
It’s impossible to miss the early-’70s pit-style sofa in the middle of the room. The original yellow fabric is like new, says Dawn—“no stains, no tears.” She remembers the moment she spotted the Adrian Pearsall piece on MoModerne’s Instagram feed and frantically texted Wimsatt to ask whether the measurements would suit the space. “Yellow is such a lovely, happy color, and that sumptuous curve—I snatched it up months before we even started construction,” says Dawn. In both the main house and the pool house, Dawn has prioritized sourcing décor and furniture from local shops, counting on her trusted, talented designer friends Jacob Laws and Brian Leenig, formerly of Future Ancestor, for advice. “I really loved the idea of vintage so that there was some depth, some feeling,” she recalls. “With such a new space, you don’t want to have all brand-new shiny stuff.”
First thing in the morning, winter or summer, Mark likes to swim laps. He’s also a big fan of the aspen-wood sauna, custom-built by Bennett. Often, says Dawn, he’ll take his laptop and work from his 10-foot, custom walnut desk in the living room. “How cool is it that he shifted gears in life and now he has a great space to work?” she says. (Mark serves on local boards and continues to be involved at his former company.) The boys, on the other hand, prefer to spend their time downstairs, where elegant walnut wood floors carried through from the main house give way to the home’s original brick floor set in a herringbone pattern. A ping pong table by RS Barcelona provides recreation for the kids and their friends. Sixteen-year-old Ben Sturmon uses the table to stage video shoots for the products he sells on Shopify. Remove the net, and the table converts into a buffet or dining table. Fold open the four-pane, sliding pocket door and–voilà!–it’s an alfresco party, with a full-service kitchen at the ready.
“Ann made my dreams come true,” says Dawn. “Joe was a dream to work with.” By all accounts, the new pool house dispenses moments of bliss to everyone in the family. “All four of us couldn’t be happier. And, yes, everything’s stressful when you do work like this, but it was so worth it.”
