Gegregorio-Galante Modern
The Degregorio-Galante modern home would stand out on any city block but it is entirely unexpected and stunning against the backdrop of Pentwater’s historic village streets.
The home with its front facing gable is one of the “new century modern” homes that capture the spirit of American modern architecture but use new materials and contemporary building techniques. The metal roof is split in the center in a dramatic broken pediment style. The massive boxed wooden ceiling beams support the roof’s long span and pierce the exterior at the roof line. In the mid-century the expansive stretched-out gable might have been described as a “flying wing.’
The brilliant white facade uses industrial-style corrugated metal. The house has abundant windows in casement style, another nod to modern architecture. The vivid-orange multi-paned front door is paired with modern metal house numbers. These various modern elements come together in a beautiful balance of polish and permanence. And for the final exterior touch, the newly completed split-roof garage echoes the house and is accessorized with copper rain chains.
The home was built by Dave Slachter of Slachter Custom Homes from plans by the owners Paula DeGregorio and Frank Galante. Gregoria grew up in Boston and has degrees in fine arts and architectural technology. She worked professionally with Steelcase and Knoll in the CAD design of office environments and served as an account manager furnishing New York City colleges. Galante has deep family roots in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York and became an artist in mid-life, taking classes in between performances as a professional musician. His everyday job was a fascinating one mapping New York’s underground cable infrastructure.
Living in a condo in New York, Galante and Degregrio worked intensive four-day weeks so they could stretch out on long weekends at their primitive Pennsylvania cabin. Paula enjoys moving and designing so next they renovated two large Victorian homes and sold their cabin, and finally left the east coast to come west to a new coast on the Lake Michigan. They built a lovely cottage-style home on Crescent St. in the village of Pentwater and jumped into community life. Both Frank and Paula began exhibiting their works in local galleries. Frank starting playing music with groups around the area and helps out at the Art on the Town Gallery. Paula is on the home tour committee and serves as a member of the Township Planning Commission. But Paula was not done with building. She was inspired to stretch her design aesthetic with this 1620 square-foot modern home on the north side of the village.
The interior of the house is light and airy with the large windows and bright white walls. The light-colored wood floors are topped with interesting woven rugs. The open concept living-dining room is furnished with stunning orange leather sofas from Gormans in Grand Rapids paired with twin vintage table lamps and a Florence Knoll dining table that was once a Xerox Company corporate office table. The vaulted ceilings are well-matched in scale by the unusual eight-foot pocket doors found throughout the house. Pendant lights and modern ceiling fans provide soft down-lighting. The living room is extra cozy in winter with the iconic gas stove made by Jotul, a Norwegian company that has been in business since 1853.
The u-shaped kitchen is built for efficiency. It features quartz countertops and Kitchen Craft cabinets. The new gas range sits on cute square legs and has a definite retro look. Throughout the house, the floor tile is noteworthy. The patterns are geometric and reference an old Greek method of heating handmade tiles to seal in the color and the clay. The kitchen pattern is circles inside larger interlocking circles. My favorite is the Escher-style floor in the converted studio space.
Every room of this house engages the visitors with views of the outdoors. The character of the home is shaped by the couple’s collection of paintings, pottery, works in progress and art collected over years of travel, for example, the masks mounted over the bank of front porch windows. This very modern structure is not cold and functional, but is warm with the ambiance of an Italian artist-musician’s villa. A bank of tall windows in the music room overlooks the tree-lined street and you are inspired to imagine the notes of a Baroque concerto. The vintage Danish chairs are by Peter Hvidt and the desk is by Peter Lovic Nielson. Technically the home has four bedrooms but two are taken up with the music room and the library.
The iconic chairs on the back porch were hand-built by the couple and are similar to the classic red and blue chairs originally designed by Dutch architect Gerrit Reitveld in 1917. Paula, a member of the Pentwater Garden Club, is now busy designing the landscape and adding the finishing touches to this awesome modern home.
