Reimagining Pelican Hall

Norma Tiefel pauses for a moment as she steps up from the pool deck into her outdoor loggia, leading a visitor on a tour of her extensively renovated home, Pelican Hall, which was built in 1937 in the Estate Section. With her are husband Bill and their architect, Jeffery Smith.

Surveying the poolside pavilion, she explains that the loggia was much smaller when the former owners added it nearly 30 years ago.

I said to Jeff, We dont have a big enough loggia. Triple it, she recalls. Do you remember that, Jeff?

Do I remember? responds Smith, his wry smile indicating that indeed he does.

The loggia, today, is expansive, large enough for a sitting area, a dining table and a bar facing the new pool.

Enlarging the loggia was just one detail in a complex, three-year renovation and expansion project that was honored Friday by the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach. During a luncheon at The Breakers, the Tiefels accepted the annual Robert I. Ballinger Award, which recognizes historically sensitive renovation projects at large estates.

Back in the loggia, Bill Tiefel directs his guests attention to the wall behind the bar. On it is displayed a slatted bamboo screen from the 1920s, painted with an Asian scene. Bill presses a button, and to his obvious delight, the screen raises to reveal a flat-screen television.

His wife explains that she was glad to have found a suitable spot for the antique screen, which she had acquired years before the couple bought Pelican Hall in 2008; the matching screen is in the cabana bath directly opposite the bar.

If you own it, use it, she says. I want things around me that are meaningful.

Decorating philosophy explained

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Reimagining Pelican Hall