Luca Architects works from Naples, and most of the practice’s work is within a half-hour drive of the office. Houses along the water, additions on established lots, condominium interiors in the Gulf-front towers, a church on Trail Boulevard, a clubhouse off Airport-Pulling. The range is deliberate. What the projects share is that each one begins with the site rather than with a style.
Mali Torriero has practised architecture for 25 years. She earned her Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech, is licensed in Florida, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, and became a certified Passive House Designer in 2016. She is on site regularly through construction and works directly with contractors, which is unusual enough in this market to be worth saying plainly.
What building in Naples actually demands
Southwest Florida sets conditions that do not apply elsewhere. July sun on a west elevation is a load, not a view. Wind-borne debris requirements govern every opening. Flood elevations set the first floor and, with it, the entire relationship between the house and its garden. Drainage has to be solved on the lot, because there is nowhere else for the water to go. None of this is negotiable, and all of it is easier to resolve in design than in the field.
Handled early, these constraints make better buildings rather than compromised ones. Deep overhangs and shaded outdoor rooms come from the sun angles. Cross ventilation comes from how the plan is organised. Raised floor levels can become an entry sequence instead of an awkward stack of steps. The constraint and the idea end up being the same decision.
Residential work
New houses, spec houses, additions and renovations. Recent Naples residential work includes a 6,500 square foot house on Pine Avenue in North Naples, a three-bedroom house with a pool in the Bayshore area, a 9,697 square foot spec house in Old Naples, an addition on Caribbean Street, and consulting on a 7,000 square foot house on Gordon Drive with rooftop solar.
The practice works at whatever scale the brief needs. A kitchen and bath remodel gets the same attention to how light enters a room as a house does, because at close range it matters more.
Commercial, worship and club work
Church of the Covenant on Trail Boulevard is a 50,000 square foot renovation that converts the old church building into a chapel and multipurpose space, adds 200 seats to the existing worship space, and adds a café with exterior seating. Heritage Greens Club House on Avian Court is a modernisation and addition to an HOA clubhouse. VITAS Healthcare on Tamiami Trail North was 11,000 square feet remodelled into new offices.
Interiors and condominium renovations
Naples has a large stock of condominium towers built over several decades, and much of it is being reworked one unit at a time. Completed interiors include two units at St. Laurent on Grenadier Boulevard, a unit on Pelican Bay Boulevard, and a kitchen and bath remodel on Gulf Shore Boulevard North. Condominium work brings its own constraints: association approvals, building rules on hours and access, structural walls that cannot move, and plumbing and mechanical routing fixed by the tower.
Naples projects
Common questions
Do I need an architect to build a house in Naples?
Collier County requires sealed drawings for new residential construction and for most structural alterations. Beyond the permit requirement, an architect is the person who resolves how a house sits on its lot, how it handles sun and storm, and how the rooms work together before money is committed to construction.
What does the design process look like?
It begins on the site, looking at orientation, contours, drainage, setbacks and what the neighbours have already built. Schematic design follows, then design development, construction documents for permit and pricing, and construction administration while the house is being built.
Which Naples neighbourhoods have you worked in?
Old Naples, Bayshore, Pelican Bay, Park Shore, North Naples along Pine Avenue and Trail Boulevard, Port Royal on Gordon Drive, and the Grenadier Boulevard towers among others. Individual projects are listed on this site.
Do you take on renovations as well as new construction?
Yes. Interior renovations and additions make up a large share of the work, including condominium remodels and additions to existing houses.