Solar Gray FLIGHT for a Designer’s Modern Home

More about the Project

By looking around the block, this bold designer found the building blocks of his home.

In the midst of a transitional, up-and-coming Tampa neighborhood, a bold designer is pushing the envelope with unconventional design decisions. Daniel Gorritz is the mastermind behind this three-story black cube, and he has a story to tell.

“I’m based out of Tampa, and my company is called IDF Group. I’ve been working in real estate for several years now. This is one of the areas that had a lot of potential, and development happening. I had been jumping around to different parts of Tampa, but wanted to focus in on a particular area by being one of the better remodelers and builders. This was the perfect area for that.”

As a Tampa native, Gorritz was deeply acquainted with the beauty of the local culture. Yet he saw unique features of his greater hometown area in the roots of this particular neighborhood. By looking around his block, he found the building blocks for his home. He built his house on the ideas and concepts he saw reflected in the people, the art, and the lifestyle.

Gorritz continued, “I wanted to push the envelope with some of the colors and just the design features of the home. When I build a home and push the envelope, my fallback is always to just keep the house if nobody likes it.” From the the front door to the third floor, there is a cohesive and clever flow within the canvas of his home. For Gorritz, much of it is held together by the sweeping Vedera FLIGHT Floating Stair System, giving frame to the walls and structure to open spaces.

“Part of that flow that you’re seeing here is the glass railing that continues and wraps around the house. I mean it’s just seamless and perfect.” Gorritz chose to maintain a darker contrast by tinting the glass panels with our proprietary Solar Gray Vedera and Base Rail option. He accentuated the railing with a strong Red Oak tread finish, providing a pop of color at every level.

Gorritz continued, “I wanted to bring the outdoors in. I wanted to bring that quintessential Florida palm tree inside the house that everybody loves and reveres, and that’s one of the reasons people come to Florida. I also got these cool monkey lights that I’ve used a couple of times and wanted to give them their own habitat. One of my favorite things was playing with the different levels, especially the landing coming up to the second story. It gives you this modern day Romeo and Juliet balcony of the entire home where you can just about see everything. By stopping and standing there, you actually get a 360 degree view of the entire house.”

Gorritz closed, saying, “It’s all tied together in a cohesive and clever way, not in a very obvious way. I wanted to be playful. The house is kind of artistic as a whole. It’s just going to take that one buyer to come in and then bring all of their unique art and bring their finishing touches to the home. It’s going be an amazing canvas for someone.”