For Michele Spano and Gary Boigon, art has been the throughline of their story for decades. “[At] my first job out of law school, when Gary and I were newly married, there was a guy at the firm who introduced us to a dealer selling auctionable art,” Spano, who is now a communications consultant, says. “She said to us, ‘If you buy one piece a year, you will have a major art collection.’” The couple took that advice to heart, thoughtfully acquiring works as they discovered them—an abstract from a Tribeca gallery, a mixed-media map on a Paris trip. “Now, we have three homes full of art,” she says. “Some of it’s expensive; some of it’s just stuff we like.”
When the couple acquired their three-bedroom penthouse in the Moorings area’s Regency Towers in 2020, they envisioned a living gallery to showcase their collection while embracing the condo’s beachfront setting. “I come from an art- and architecture-oriented family. My father, sister and brother are architects, so I’ve always had an interest in graphic, somewhat modern, interesting pieces,” Boigon adds.
The couple partnered with Naples-based designer Stephanie Waltbillig, who had worked on their previous Naples apartment and Manhattan loft, to transform the space. The project evolved into a nearly four-year odyssey: The building didn’t allow work during peak season, 2020 yielded its supply-chain shutdowns, followed by Hurricane Ian, which brought work to a complete halt. “We had no electricity, no elevators, nothing for an entire year,” Spano says.
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
waltbillig naples moorings condo
Designer Stephanie Waltbillig worked with architect Mark Leonardi to renovate the Moorings penthouse. “The home is a beautiful meld of New York and South Florida vibes,” Waltbillig says. In the great room, a pair of Ed Koehler doors delineate the den, and two-toned Silvio Wolf photographs set a striking backdrop. “Gary [Boigon] and Michele [Spano’s] home reminds me of an art gallery,” says Naples artisan Jeremy Jones, who did much of the condo’s custom detailing.
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
waltbillig naples moorings condo
Leonardi redesigned the condo’s footprint with a niche to hold a special Peter Calaboyias sculpture. Wooden slat panels by Jones create cohesion throughout the space, while a media center he crafted from a single piece of walnut for Gary, a jazz musician, draws the eye with its river of black resin and custom speaker panels.
The renovation team approached every design decision through the lens of art display. Recessed baseboards eliminate visual interruptions along gallery-white walls and white oak floors. Cabinet hardware vanishes in the all-white kitchen, where a walnut dining surface and shelving seamlessly integrate into the island. Bedroom doors disappear behind slatted oak panels in the hallways. “You can’t tell there’s anything there when they are closed—it’s fabulous,” Spano says.
Waltbillig worked with artisan Jeremy Jones, who handled most of the custom detailings, and architect Mark Leonardi to maximize space in the penthouse. One ‘must’ was carving out space from the two cavernous guest bedrooms to create a soundproof office for Boigon, a semiprofessional jazz saxophonist who spent most of his career in the metals industry. They also opened up the kitchen; created a hallway with a purpose-built nook to house a bronze sculpture by Peter Calaboyias; outfitted the primary bedroom with closet space; and added a half bath with a hand-carved, driftwood-inspired countertop and watercolor-style painted walls by Naples artist Megan Graham Young, of Palette Studio. “Gary and Michele always have a houseful of guests and need lots of surfaces for entertaining,” Waltbillig says. The kitchen end of the condo now encompasses a formal dining area and a Taj Mahal quartzite bar that seems to glow from within. “We wanted it to have a light, suspended feel,” she says.
Much of the renovation work took place in the space between the living and great rooms, where the wood-slat treatment by Jones turned new walls into part of the design. The spaces unfold as a series of carefully composed moments. Naples artisan Ed Koehler created sculptural resin doors for the media room, anchoring the living area. “We wanted to be able to enclose the space completely if they needed it to function as a bedroom, but to have the doors act like art unto themselves,” Waltbillig says.
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Photography by Dan Cutrona
Within the den, the walls are painted a deep black, echoing dark details in the adjoining living room—like the piano’s velvet settee and pair of Silvio Wolf photographs—while creating a comfortable feel. Jones made the built-ins in the media room, repeating the slat details from the hallway and topping them with a sandblasted steel countertop. “Gary and Michele’s home reminds me of an art gallery—there are these white walls and lots of neat, organic, contrasting, eclectic pieces,” Jones says.
Even utilitarian spaces become canvases. Graham Young transformed the guest bathrooms with site-specific murals: one, a bold, nature-inspired composition in deep greens that nods to the couple’s appreciation for color; another, a naturalist flamingo landscape scene against an indigo backdrop. “I thought it’d be so fun to do a tonal mural with a pop of color,” Waltbillig says. “That shrimpy coral color really livens up that grayish indigo.” She commissioned the mural to have a realistic, John James Audubon-inspired look that would feel sophisticated, not childlike, and married it with floor tiles with a studded patchwork pattern. “We didn’t want something bland that would get lost in the room,” she adds, describing the flooring.
The primary bedroom exemplifies the home’s marriage of art and function. The couple wanted to add more closet space without compromising the view of Doctors Bay. Jones devised a storage wall with double-duty heft—one end holds the mixed-media headboard with integrated nightstands; the other forms a hallway with closets concealed behind sultry smoked glass. “We built it like a hotel room,” Jones says. “We wanted to utilize every inch of space.” Along the headboard wall, he repeated a dovetail joinery-style detail that harkens to exposed detailing in the en suite bathroom. “We picked up some of the language from the cabinetry in the primary bathroom and repeated it in the wall behind the bed, just scaled up,” he adds. Compared to the boldly-decorated powder rooms, the primary bath is clean and simple. “We wanted it to feel more like a spa; it has a quieter, more geometric feel,” Waltbillig says. “But that’s important for a primary bathroom because you spend more time in here.”
The designer also employed creative solutions to maximize perceived space in the guest rooms: a raffia chandelier draws the eye upward in one small-ish room with two double beds and 8-foot ceilings (“Sometimes, it adds more height when you pay attention to the ceiling, versus trying to make it go away,” she says). A custom headboard wrapped in navy grasscloth creates drama in another. The textures of the wallpaper and headboard lend the space richness, which is furthered through a tape trim along the curtains, linen blinds and birdseye maple cabinet, which is stained in navy. “We wanted to turn what could be a regular piece into a sort of artifact, to give this room a rock ‘n’ roll vibe,” she adds.
Photography by Dan Cutrona
waltbillig naples moorings condo
Compared to the boldly decorated guest baths and powder room, the primary bath is clean and simple. “We wanted it to feel more like a spa; it has a quieter, more geometric feel,” the designer says. “But that’s important for a primary bathroom because you spend more time in here.”
The living areas required particular ingenuity to accommodate significant pieces. A crane hoisted the grand piano and a commanding painting of a cowboy by John La Huis, which now anchors the dining area. In the living area, a palette of mixed cream hues and textures of leather, sisal and faux fur create a neutral backdrop for the art, with pops of primary colors in pillows echoing the bold works on display.
Throughout the home, vintage pieces mingle naturally with contemporary elements. The living area’s sinewy custom doors by Ed Koehler play off a sculptural navy blue Vladimir Kagan chair, and the grand piano balances a pair of eye-catching oversized prints by Italian photographer Silvio Wolf—one black and red, the other black and canary yellow. A midcentury kitchen table, restained by Jones, stands in the dining area next to the bar. The bar is dotted with retro-inspired stools with brass details. “Each of the pieces they’ve acquired has its own personality, but it all works together,” Waltbillig says.
Nearby, in the great room, Jones designed the entertainment cabinet to hold all of the homeowner’s audio equipment and speakers (one of the cabinet doors is engraved with the name of Boigon’s band). The designer used a single length of walnut, cut in half and filled it with a river of black resin to form the cabinet doors. Offsetting the cabinet is a console topped by a mixed media piece by Boigon’s brother, Brian. and a black leather Eames lounge chair. The bronze Peter Calaboyias sculpture displayed nearby is a testament to the many relationships Spano and Boigon have formed with artists over decades of collecting. They met the Greek-born Pittsburgh sculptor, who famously created the Tribute sculpture for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, when Boigon was traveling for work. “He became a buddy of ours over 30 years,” Boigon says. “Peter recently passed away, and we hold onto his art and appreciate it even more now.”
Another artist-turned-friend showcased in the home is painter Hunt Slonem, internationally renowned for his bright, abstract depictions of animals. “Early on, we went to his studio on Houston Street in New York, and he had all these live birds and monkeys in there,” Boigon recalls. Several of Slonem’s pieces are featured throughout the penthouse, including above a credenza in the front hallway.
Nearby is an oil painting of mangroves by Naples artist Carmelo Blandino. Boigon and Spano bought the piece from celebrated Naples interior designer Judith Liegeois nearly two decades ago, when she ran what was then “a little design shop that was just sort of starting out,” Spano says. “We also bought some tall, wooden pieces from her, and that was the beginning of a 30-year friendship.”
Moving through the penthouse’s rooms, each work of art stands in conversation with the next and the furnishings around it. “Our sense of design really revolves around our artwork. We’re not finding art just to fit on a wall,” Spano says. “We acquire it because we like it, and we love supporting artists.”
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
waltbillig naples moorings condo
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Photography by Dan Cutrona
waltbillig naples moorings condo
Guest bedrooms and baths salute the coastal setting. In one guest room, a navy blue grasscloth offers an elegant contrast above the muted, wall-to-wall headboard. The mural in the guest bathroom is hand-painted by Naples artist Megan Graham Young.