HERE ARE TWO DISTINCT APPROACHES TO BUILDING LUXURY HOMES: one prioritizes opulent comfort, dramatic showmanship and bold contemporary designs, and the other prioritizes the enduring wisdom of classical design.
While the former might make an exaggerated first impression, the charm may only be skin deep. It’s the homes that adhere to centuries-old architectural principles such as symmetry and proportion and time-tested materials that remain comfortable, appealing and adaptable for hundreds of years.
Though the residence we’re visiting today in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood is truly magnificent, its classical elements and extraordinary attention to detail ensure this home will remain magnificent, relevant and adaptable for generations. And, if it looks familiar to you, the house and its gardens have been featured in films, including Netflix’s The Outlaws with Pierce Brosnan and Ellen Barkin, and Do Revenge starring Maya Hawke and Sophie Turner, and the Hulu series Tell Me Lies.
Designed by Palm Beach architect Jeffery W. Smith and built by The Berndsen Company, the impressive Mediterranean-style home features six bedrooms, including a full guest suite, and 12 bathrooms spread across three levels. It also has formal gardens, a heated pool, a wine cellar, a media room, a bar and a gym. All interior design was done by the homeowner.
Having built several Georgian-style homes in the past, the clients who envisioned this estate wanted something different. As avid travelers, they’d always been attracted to the traditional features of Mediterranean architecture, including linear design, abundant natural light and intricate millwork. To bring their vision to life, they asked for builder referrals from their neighbors.
“Buckhead is a close-knit neighborhood,” explains Jon Berndsen, president of The Berndsen Company. “When people need something, they ask their friends for referrals. Nearly all of our work in that neighborhood comes from past clients referring us to their friends and family. We’ve worked in Buckhead for 40 years, so we’re well known and have developed a well-established reputation for executing outstanding custom homes.”
This connection proved fortuitous. The Berndsen team, which has been constructing luxury custom homes throughout Georgia and the Southeast for more than three decades, brought precisely the expertise needed for such an ambitious project. Their excellence was later recognized with the prestigious OBIE Award for the completed residence.
Berndsen is a student and devotee of classical architecture and was instrumental in founding the Southeast Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. “Classical architecture stands the test of time,” he says. “It adopts principles from ancient Greek and Roman time periods; those generations developed the proportions and formulas that make any architecture look good. Even modern architecture, if it uses classical formulas and proportions, can look great. The Golden Ratio, sometimes referred to as the Divine Proportion, is a mathematical formula dating back to approximately 300 B.C., said to be the root of all beauty in nature, art and architecture. It determines aspects such as the height-to-width ratios of elevations, assemblies and room proportions that make classic architecture feel and appear visually appealing. Most people will never register it, but when you break it down to mathematical proportions, it makes sense.”
This adherence to classical principles ensures the home will remain aesthetically relevant regardless of interior design trends. “Anyone could live here,” the homeowner notes. “It’s built so beautifully that it can be many things.” The clients knew exactly what they wanted from the home, and a few specific requirements shaped the design: no stairway in the foyer, multiple entries and exits from each room to allow easy flow during parties, and all the public rooms had to offer views of the pool and gardens.
“It’s a classic Mediterranean-style house,” Berndsen says. “The execution required highly skilled craftsmen who know old-world techniques for doing specialized millwork, masonry and roofing. It’s not something that your basic homebuilders and subcontractors would know how to execute. This home will be here for hundreds of years, whereas many of those built today will have to be thoroughly renovated or restored within 30 or 40 years.”
The construction features traditional lime-based cement stucco applied over a concrete block exterior, creating a true masonry house with substantial, thick walls. The Mediterranean influence is evident in the masonry stucco exterior, clay barrel tile roofing, limestone cornices, window and door surrounds, numerous arches and classical columns.
Below the surface is plenty of modern comfort. “Even though it uses a lot of old-world techniques and principles, it incorporates lots of modern-day technologies,” Berndsen says. “Windows and doors are modern, high-efficiency and clad in metal; there’s very little exterior wood, so it’s relatively maintenance-free. The insulation and soundproofing throughout, the lighting and the climate control systems are all highly energy efficient.”
The approach to the home is designed to create a sense of discovery. Visitors drive through stately iron gates into a port cochere, a typical feature of European estates, and into a spacious motor court that is partially enclosed by the home’s wings. The front door is situated beneath a beautiful limestone loggia, featuring Corinthian limestone columns and arched openings, with a balcony above. “From the street, you see the portico and wings, but then as you drive in, it’s just spectacular,” Berndsen says. “It gives the family a bit of privacy from the road and passersby a hint of the grandeur beyond.”
The interior layout is carefully designed to strike a balance between grandeur and functionality. Entering the grand foyer, visitors are greeted by views through the equally impressive living room, which extends to the rear garden and pool. To the left is the formal dining hall, dining room and kitchen. The breakfast room, larger than most dining rooms, features beautiful hand-painted tiles and personal treasures from the homeowner’s collection, which are incorporated into the coffered ceiling.
The homeowner’s entertaining needs influenced the layout and flow of the home. Behind the kitchen lies a separate wing containing a casual family room and a private outdoor garden terrace.
For visitors, a favorite space within the home is its walk-up bar, strategically positioned in a spacious hallway that separates the kitchen from the dining room. With Dutch doors and ornate screens in a circular motif that match the ceiling, it’s the perfect place to station a bartender for parties. The doors can be closed when not in use, so the bar isn’t constantly on display. “We’ve hosted many charity parties and had lots of people here. No matter what, they all end up in the bar,” the homeowner says.
Throughout the home, ceilings serve as canvases for artistic expression. Each public space features a unique ornate ceiling treatment, from the coffered ceiling in the breakfast room to the arched cornice in the formal dining area and the elaborate detailing in the central kitchen. “Each ceiling gives the room its own special character that sets it apart,” Berndsen explains. “As you walk through, each room is a whole different surprise; it’s like walking through an art gallery.”
The living room ceiling exemplifies the precision required for such designs. “It was like a jigsaw puzzle,” Berndsen recalls. “We had to lay out the overall length and width of the panels on the ceiling and adjust the size of each of those inserts to fit within that space properly.”
In the family room, shallow plaster arches between wood beams simulate an ancient construction method where brick arches between beams supported masonry floors above. “Because they’re masonry, they’re self-supporting,” Berndsen notes, highlighting another old-world technique incorporated into the design.
The homeowners remain captivated by these architectural features to this day: “We’re still mesmerized by the ceilings. No matter where we travel, every time we come home, we say, ‘We’re so glad to be home; this is so beautiful.’”
Executing such intricate details demanded exceptional talent. “We were over the moon to have all of these artisans working on the house,” the homeowner says. “It was built in the European style, and Jon has extraordinary craftsmen. Even though the architect drew out the details of each room, there was still a lot of creativity in the building process.”
Berndsen takes pride in his team’s specialized skills. “We’ve got the best of the best in the trades working for us,” he says. “For example, the crew that did the plasterwork is highly skilled; they learned the trade in Eastern Europe decades ago. They can do what 99% of the plaster people here can’t do.”
The library exemplifies this dedication to craftsmanship. “We had a master carpenter who built the whole room by himself over a period of months. It’s a real work of art,” Berndsen says. “All of the curved moldings had to be custom milled. Then we had a very skilled finisher come in and complete the staining, finishing and waxing of the entire room.”
Beyond the main floor, the residence features a second level with three guest rooms, each with its own private limestone balcony and en suite bath, as well as a grand guest suite located in the right front wing, which can accommodate visitors or household staff. The guest suite in the front wing of the home also has a guest room, in case staff or guests have visitors. The primary suite features two full baths, two walk-in closets and two offices. A partial basement features a media room with cypress cabinetry and beams, a second bar, a powder room, a wine cellar and a spacious exercise room.
Berndsen considers the exterior one of his favorite aspects of the project. “The exterior is exquisite,” he says. “The landscape architect did a fantastic job making everything axial, symmetrical and balanced.”
The homeowners have achieved their goal of creating a relaxed, multigenerational home: “We have eight grandchildren, and they love it. The kids play hide-and-seek in all the rooms. It’s a home that’s built for multiple generations to enjoy. In the future, a young family could move in and make it contemporary or transitional because it has such great bones.”
It’s no wonder The Berndsen Company has a high rate of repeat business. “Well over half of our business is repeat,” Berndsen says. “We’ve built multiple houses for many of our clients over the decades. We really become part of the family, and that’s important to us. Many times, we’ll go on to build homes for their children; we have a lot of second-generation clients.”
The homeowners are thrilled with how their vision came to life. “Jon is so calm, and he’s so knowledgeable,” the homeowner says. “If we ran into an issue during construction, he’d just work through it. He’s in a class of his own. It was a great collaboration. We are very detail-oriented, and Jon understands that. He approaches everything with care and attention. He never gets flustered. In any construction project, there will be challenges, but the sign of a great builder is to take the overarching vision and make it a reality, and Jon did that for us.” *
Robin Howard is a freelance writer in Charleston. See more of her work at robinhowardwrites.com.
