Built as the show home for Sarasota's Lido Shores neighborhood in 1953, the structure blends international style modernism with indigenous tropical design.

He hoped that a radical new design might “catapult his Lido Shores development into the international spotlight.”[5] Rudolph was launching his own independent architecture practice in Sarasota at the time and was willing to work on the project.

[6][7] Rudolph was aware of Hiss’ interest in site-specific architecture (designed to integrate into its environment) and set to work on a configuration that was at once geometrically modern and in harmony with its locale.

Over this box was built a large simple frame with a latticed ‘parasol’ (flat umbrella roof) overlaying the house, the rear patio, and the pool.

Despite its diminutive size (less than 1,500 square feet), the interior plan was a complex combination of transparent spaces and opaque walls, creating both privacy and spaciousness.

The 17-foot-high vaulted ceiling, with floor-to-ceiling glass (front and back of the house), framed exterior views of both Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico from the second-floor bridge and bedroom balconies.

He recalled that Rudolph was obsessed with minimizing vertical supports for the stairs and balconies and hiding tension members and bracing connections on the pergola roof.