Publications

Vero Beach Magazine (Living the Dream, March 2019)

From Never To Forever
Marion De Vogel’s Sand Castle Helped Make Her Husband, Willem, A Believer In The Vero Beach Lifestyle

If ever there was a perfect time of the year for Marion de Vogel to introduce her husband, Willem, to Vero Beach, it was in March, the beginning of “mud season” up North — a time when frost comes out of the ground, snow starts melting and spring rains combine to create a mucky mess.

For Marion, whose great-grandfather, Arthur G. McKee, co-founded McKee Botanical Garden, and whose father, Arthur McKee Latta, managed the grounds, it was like coming home. For Willem, who had made it clear from the beginning that he wanted nothing to do with the Sunshine State, it was grin-and-bear-it time

However, after experiencing the Vero Beach version of the Florida lifestyle, Willem began to have a change of heart, and last summer the de Vogels moved into their new two-story, four-bedroom home on the barrier island. In contrast to their traditional residence in New York state, their Vero abode has a more contemporary feel that celebrates their new life together.

Architectural Digest

Classical Epiphany, New Life For A Once-Abandoned Medieval Property in Italy

In their serene detachment from the momenta of the modern world, Tuscany’s hill towns today maintain all that exquisite simplicity so beloved of Florence’s and Siena’s Renaissance masters, who regularly depicted them in the backgrounds of their paintings of the holy and the heroic.

Artists and designers have long been drawn to the tranquil beauty of these villages’ clean lines, plain geometrical forms and graceful proportions situated in hilly landscapes of vineyard and olive groves punctuated by cypress and live oak trees. Indeed, between 1503 and 1506, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, which likely was set at the Villa Vignamaggio, in the Chianti region, some 20 miles south of Florence. In 2005 Vero Beach, Florida, designer Susan Schuyler Smith began the restoration of a historically significant property in Le Convertoie, only three kilometers away.

Florida Design

Harmonizing Styles, This Vero Beach Home Masterfully Balances Southern Elegance And Livability With A Creative Blend of Old and New

The peaceful southern charm of Winsdor, a Vero Beach community conceived by urban planners Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, impressed Dr. Richard Franco, wife Kim and their three young children. With its resort village amenities and its stunning location on the barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River, the community was the ideal location for their new year-round residence.

To create the family environment they sought, the Francos assembled designer Susan Schuyler Smith, architect Scott Layne and builder David Croom—all of whom had worked with the owners on other projects. “They love to build homes, and they knew what they wanted—an understated, elegant home. Also they love to collect antiques, art and furniture, so they wanted the design to incorporate old and new,” Smith says.