Light Show:
“This house appeals
to my sense of the
theatrical,” says
owner Frank Lynch,
whose Frank Stella
lithographs, like the
one hanging over the
stairs, can be illuminated at night by
custom-designed
theater lighting.
written by STEPHANIE HUNT
photographs by PETER FRANK EDWARDS
American
Idyll
A Scottish couple trades in traditional
European architecture for modern lines and
high drama on the Isle of Palms.
rank and Linda Lynch can spot a good venue.
As former proprietors of nightclubs, restaurants, and discos in
Europe and the U.S., they know something about ambiance, location, and what
gives a place pizzazz. At their best-known spot, the legendary Glasgow Apollo in
their hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, Frank transformed an enormous, decaying cinema into a rock ’n’ roll haven, where everyone who was anyone in the
1970s and ’80s music scene—AC/DC, Diana Ross, The Rolling Stones, Miles
Davis, Elton John, Neil Young, and hundreds more—played to a packed house.
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“The joy of this house is that it’s so totally new to us. It’s
the complete opposite of anything we’ve ever lived in.”
Ship Shapes:
Above: “The site was
screaming for something exceptional,”
recalls architect Beau
Clowney, of the
home’s position on a
protruding point along
the Intracoastal
Waterway. And though
portholes and punched
window openings give
the exterior a carved
geometric feel,
Clowney claims that
the diagrammatic
nature of the plan, the
choice of materials,
and their detailing are
what make this home
modern. Right: The
ultra-sleek cookspace
by German kitchen
design firm
Poggenpohl puts the
focus on function.
“Fans and bands loved the place. If a band was recording a live album, they came to the Apollo because it
drew these exuberant Glaswegians—a tough crowd,
but if you could turn them on, you really had something,” Frank says. “It was scuzzy and smelly, okay, a bit
rough and ready, but that was part of its magic. There
was passion; the place had atmosphere.”
So too is the Lynches’ current venue alive with
passion and atmosphere, though it’s far from rough and
ready—and not exactly a packed house. Situated on a
small point with an unobscured panoramic view of
the Intracoastal Waterway, their minimalist, modern
Isle of Palms home is crisp and clean and soaring with
imagination.
“The joy of this house is that it’s so totally new to us.
It’s the complete opposite of anything we’ve ever lived
in,” Linda explains, recounting their former abodes:
drafty, austere Victorians in Scotland, a Normandy-style
home complete with a turret in New York, and their
first home after moving to the states in 1979, an “overthe-top Americana” house in Fort Lauderdale. “Every
Scottish person loves America, you know, so here we’d
arrived: we bought this sprawling brick place with four
pillars, a rose marble Jacuzzi for six. I thought I was
Elvis,” Frank quips.
But their Graceland days are over.
“We wanted to keep things as simple as possible
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here. We wanted no walls downstairs, no formal dining
room, an open kitchen,” Linda explains. This, of course,
meant that their pack-rat days were behind them, too.
BASKET CASE
After 25 years of relocating frequently and living amidst
“total clutter” in more traditional homes, the Lynches’
shift toward spare contemporary wasn’t just another
move, it was a midlife crisis. “Well, a midlife crisis for
Linda; a geriatric crisis for me,” jokes Frank, who is actually a spry 65.
“Linda had 400 baskets full of stuff,” asserts old husband. “Forty-two,” counters young wife, “I counted when
I gave them away. I’ve reinvented myself, you know.”
So with their children now grown and gone, and
without a basket in sight, these veterans of the entertainment and theater business have settled into an invitingly open and intriguing living space, where the focus
is on art, nature, architecture, and story—not stuff.“This
house appeals to my sense of the theatrical,” admits
Frank, who points to dramatic elements like the
embracing elliptical curve that surrounds the entrance
stairs and two Frank Stella lithographs, one circular and
one convex, that give color and flair to the living room.
At night, custom-designed theatrical lighting precisely
frames the artwork in a dramatic glow.
Architectural mastermind Beau Clowney of Beau
Clowney Design was given leeway by the Lynches for
improv and spontaneity, evident in inspired touches
like a narrow catwalk with a see-through steel grate
floor off the second-story deck. Frank asked Clowney
the purpose for this odd appendage when he initially
saw the plans.“‘No purpose,’ he told me.‘It’s for fun, for
the view,’” Frank recalls. “I liked that; that’s what this
house is about—fun.”
“You can walk out there and have a Titanic moment,”
jokes Linda.
Indeed the view was the driving design factor. The
Room with a View:
A two-story wall of
windows ensures that
no passing pleasure
boat nor pelican flight
be obscured from
view, while a continuation of travertine tile
from the living area to
the pool deck blends
interior with exterior.
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couple knew that Charleston was where they wanted
to stay. Though they also do business and keep a loft
apartment in Atlanta, home is here, on the water.
“This is the longest we’ve lived anywhere,” Linda confesses. “We grew up by the water in Glasgow, so we feel
very at home here. Charleston has got a little bit of everything; we think it’s the most special place in America.”
SOUTHERN MOD
Home Entertainment:
An informal dining
area off of the kitchen
punctuates the first
floor with a subtle
shade of powder blue,
while the unusual
“blow-up” light
hanging overhead was
another feature added
“just for fun,” according to Linda.
house sits high on a protruding spit of land near the
Wild Dunes marina, and an immense two-story wall of
windows offers pristine vistas of every passing pelican,
barge, and pleasure boat. From the living room or from
the upstairs balcony, one has the feeling of being on the
prow of a large ship cruising the waterway, a post Frank
knows well. His introduction to Charleston was from
such a perch, when he docked here as a young merchant marine sailing to the world’s ports. Even as an 18year-old, he remembers being smitten with the city.And
years later, when the Lynches’ current venture in the
car wash business brought them to South Carolina, the
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However, what Charleston does not have is a lot of
ultra-modern architecture.The Lynches happened upon
the inspiration for their home while driving along busy
Devine Street in Columbia. “Whoa, stop the car, that’s a
brilliant house!” Frank remembers saying. After knocking on the door and using his trademark Scottish charm
to garner a tour, he learned the
house was a Beau Clowney design
and that Clowney was based in
Charleston. Bingo.
“The site on Isle of Palms was
screaming for something exceptional,”
notes Clowney, whose training is in
modern
architecture
(at
the
Architectural Association in London
and with Michael Graves at Princeton).
Yet since this home would be situated
in Wild Dunes, a severe, internationalinfluenced style would have to be tempered with more traditional elements.
His solution: “There’s the obligatory
Mirror Images:
Right: Commanding
almost as much
attention as the
panoramic view is the
immense antique mirror hanging just past
the entryway to the
living room. The Art
Nouveau work hung in
Paris’ renowned
restaurant, Maxim’s,
for nearly a century,
“likely casting back
images of Jackie O.,
Maria Callas, Liz
Taylor, and hundreds
of others in its time,”
Frank speculates.
“In fact, the original
placement of the
windows in this room
was altered to
accommodate
the mirror.”
Opposite page,
bottom right:
A circular screened
porch off of the dining
area was Linda’s idea.
“I lobbied hard for
this,” she laughs. “And
I’m glad I did—we
spend a lot of time out
on that porch.”
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“There’s the street-facing façade that is sympathetic to the
neighborhood aesthetic, but then there’s backstage—the
view from the water—which is all glass, all modern.”
Southern Exposure:
The Lynches admit
that the view was the
driving design factor,
but their self-described
“fun house” has
become something of
an architectural landmark for boaters along
the Intracoastal
Waterway. Right: One
of the Lynches’ dogs,
Sweep, enjoys the
view from the stairs.
street-facing façade that is sympathetic to the neighborhood aesthetic, but then there’s backstage, if you will—the
view from the water, which is all glass, all modern.”
Borrowing from Southern vernacular, Clowney used a
dogtrot to connect the main house with the private guest
quarters. A simple hipped roof added at the request of
Wild Dunes’ architectural review board uses exaggerated
overhangs to enliven its sense of scale, while playfully
leaving gaps for added openness and light.“The diagrammatic nature of the plan, the choice of materials, and their
detailing are what make this house modern,” explains
Clowney. Portholes and punched window openings of
various sizes give the exterior a carved geometric feel,
while a continuation of travertine tile from the living area
to the pool deck blends the interior and exterior spaces.
The anchoring central portion acts as a linear room with
windows on all sides, inviting light from all orientations.
MIRROR MIRÓ ON THE WALL
The Lynches could tell stories all day long, each finishing
the other’s sentence or injecting a lovingly comic jab.
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Definitive shapes—in the driveway and at the top of the entry stairs—extend a dramatic invitation to guests. Simple plastic chairs in the dining room were chosen for their minimalist appeal.
Steel entry stairs lead visitors from the garden to the raised first floor. Grass and concrete provide graphic elements. A spiral outdoor staircase leads up to a guest suite.
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IN SINK:
Above: The Lynches
credit architect Beau
Clowney with the
unusual design of the
downstairs powder
room, its focal point a
concrete block sink.
Bottom right: A
guest bedroom features a built-in bed by
craftsman Michael
Keyes, who specializes
in such details for
boat cabins.
Opposite page,
top left: An outdoor
seating area sits at
the base of the spiral
stairway, beneath a
narrow catwalk that
extends off the
second-floor deck.
They are delightful, warm, and gregarious, and have
appointed their airy abode with items imbued with
almost as much personality as they themselves have.“We
didn’t want to just go buy all this Italian furniture, plunk
it down, and say ‘Here’s our modern house,’” says Linda
(despite their two Italian sectionals). Instead, they took
their time perusing in Miami, Atlanta, and elsewhere for
interesting pieces—except for the most striking purchase. An immense, century-old mirror that commands
attention in the living room was acquired before the
house was built, and in fact, the windows and the room
itself were designed to accommodate this remnant from
the legendary Paris bistro, Maxim’s.
With graceful angular vines slithering around its frame,
this unusual Art Nouveau work has obvious sculptural
appeal, but its untold stories are what captured the
Lynches’ imaginations. From 1902 to 1992, when it was
removed to make room for a kitchen expansion, this
piece hung near Maxim’s restrooms.“Imagine how many
people have looked in that mirror,” Frank muses.“Marlene
Dietrich adjusted her skirt in that mirror. Jackie Onassis,
Maria Callas, Josephine Baker, Liz Taylor. The Duke and
Duchess of Windsor, Dalí, Warhol, and Cocteau…all the
divas and celebrities of the ’30s and ’40s and beyond who
came to Maxim’s are reflected in there.”
The Lynches are drawn to other objects similarly
124 | C H A R L E S T O N H O M E
infused with life and story. In the mezzanine glasssided sitting room, Joan Miró’s handprints are
embossed within his splashy surrealist painting. The
hefty living room coffee table, now bearing a framed
gallery of smiling children and grandchildren, was
once an Indonesian weavers’ worktable, complete with
cutting marks and worn notches. “It’s a living thing,”
Frank remarks, running his hand over the scarred
wood. He admits he is awed by the size of the tree that
offered up the beautiful rosewood slab. Yet Linda marvels at the manpower required to install the massive
honed slate hearth. “It took eight men to lift it. One
almost had a coronary! And then Frank comes in and
says, ‘I liked it better before, nice and bare. You’re just
going to put candles and flowers on it.’ I told him,‘Well
then, you’re going to have to tell the poor guy you
want it out.’”The slate remains (complete with candles
and flowers), providing contrast to the towering white
fireplace—and, no doubt, relief to the workers.
OUTSIDE IN
Clowney and his clients wanted to merge the inside living space with the natural environment as seamlessly as
possible, though this can be a challenge when a home
must be elevated in a flood zone. Linda insisted that she
have a screened porch (“I’m not living in South Carolina
without it!”), so Clowney and “Neil the Builder” of
Daly/Sawyer Builders obliged with a playful circular
nook off the kitchen, inviting fresh breezes into the
home and a bug-free outdoor escape. Landscape architect Sheila Wertimer further married the interior and
exterior by making a courtyard the primary entry point
for the home. One walks through the garden foyer—a
fragrant allée of potted citrus trees and annuals—before
ascending the exterior entry stairs.
Wertimer’s minimalist water garden “blew our
minds,” says Linda, who especially enjoys the garden
views at night, when tiny lights illuminate the narrow
linear fountain. In keeping with the couple’s unpretentious nature, most of the landscaping is informal, featuring abundant native grasses and sea oats. On the
waterfront side, an architectural grouping of six palms
stands at attention below the Infinity pool.
FORWARD VISION
The Lynches may have left behind their rock ’n’ roll days
for a laid-back Isle of Palms lifestyle, but they haven’t lost
their knack for the cutting edge. Back when Europe’s
largest cinema was a dilapidated theater, Frank saw potential for creating a major music venue and ended up making a contribution to rock ’n’ roll history. He claims he
chose the name “Apollo” mainly because it was short and
the signage would be cheap, but also because at the time,
the Americans had just landed on the moon and “it was of
today, it was about looking forward.” The couple’s contemporary home in the heart of the Old South is similarly
“of today.” It’s playful, smart, and above all, fun.And for two
former disco owners, that’s entertainment enough.
Warm Welcome:
A water garden
designed by Sheila
Wertimer serves as a
foyer to the home,
with potted citrus
trees and annuals
leading the way to the
exterior entry stairs.
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