For $6.5 Million, a Hudson Valley House by the Architect Who Lived in It First

Every so often a listing comes along that answers the question Palm Beach buyers ask of every architect they hire: fine, but what did you build for yourself? In Gil Schafer's case, the answer stands in the Hudson Valley, a Greek Revival residence he designed and built in 1999, and it is now on the market at $6.5 million. Schafer sold the property last summer, and the new owner has put it back up for sale. That makes it a rare kind of house, one conceived by an architect with no client to please but himself, and then lived in long enough to prove the idea worked. Greek Revival is a style that reads as settled and unhurried, which is roughly the opposite of what gets built on the water in Miami, and closer to the mood Naples likes to think it owns. For Floridians who keep a northern address for the months when the humidity wins, the Hudson Valley has always been the quieter alternative to the Hamptons, and a house with this pedigree is about as good a reason to look there as one could ask for. The asking price buys the building, the setting, and the knowledge that the person who drew the plans was also the person who had to live with them.

With reporting from Robb Report.