The Heavenly Path

By Jorge S. Arango
Photography By Kim Sargent

"A man's journey leads to a Pennsylvania estate that is one with nature."

"This was conceived as the project of a lifetime.", says Peter Amato, sitting in his state-of-the-art Poggenpohl kitchen that overlooks the distant Poconos of northern Pennsylvania. "It was designed as a piece of art, as an experience to be s that had bv rnanv. including those involved in its creation."

Set on 84 acres of farmland and sprawling languidly over some 16,000 square feet, the house, like Amato, radiates serenity. Those involved in its creation included stonemasons, quarryinen, inetalsiniths, welders, electrical technicians, old-world cabinetmakers, Tibetan inonks, shanians and others "Involved in the art of sacred placeniaking," lie says.

For Amato, the Journey to this place, which he calls Harmony Mountain, was an agonizing one. Born into a working-class Utahan family that established A&A Auto Stores, Amato and his brothers and sister worked seven days a week from the age of 13. "1 kind of missed in childhood," lie says. He and his siblings later founded Keystone Automotive, a wholesale offshoot that became a worldwide success. Amato lived hard-racing cars, drinking the finest Bordeaux wines, traveling the world. But by age 28, ill-prepared for his good fortune, deeply depressed and his marriage in shambles, he landed in rehab, where he was introduced to meditation. A self-described "foxhole prayer," Amato embarked on a path of spiritual enlightenment that led to a new career as founder o several wellness centers, healer, teacher and writer. He sought out audiences and partnerships with such holistic thinkers as Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, the Dalai Lama and the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

So, despite its rich materials, proportions and advanced technology, Harmony Mountain is more about communing with nature and the spiritual world than it is about ostentation. "Peter exuded a certain inner peace that guided the project," says Marc Thee, principal of Marc-Michaels Interior Design in Florida. It resulted, he adds, "in a luxuriousness that presents itself in comfort, rather r than in showiness."

For the exterior, architect James C. Rogers III wove together a seemingly irreconcilable set of desires. "Peter liked the Italianate style as well as Eastern architecture," says Rogers. "He obviously has an interest in Eastern philosophies, but he also liked Florida's open-plan houses and colors." Amato requested a layout that required no more than two steps up or down to move from one space to another-except the upstairs, of course, which needed an actual staircase. Midway through the design, he asked for more curves, which he felt would give the house "more flow."

Rogers' solution? A house built as intersecting semicircles: one embracing the front drive and courtyard and the other hugging the pool area and a landscape of farmland and rolling hills. "I tried to work the house so the scale doesn't overwhelm you on the approach," says Rogers. "It's not grandiose. I wanted to keep it low and to achieve a certain intimacy." Not an easy task when you must allow for four large bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a home theater that seats 30, an enormous laundry room, a kitchen, a great room and a dining room, a pool house, a car barn, a separate apartment for guests or hired help, an emergency shelter, two subterranean tunnels and a "dog room."

No expense was spared. The structure showcases an array of wood species and varieties of stone. "I am impressed by the expression of nature as art," says Amato, who traveled around with the Marc-Michaels Interior Design staff to select almost every square inch of surface material. In addition to the stone quarried from the property and incorporated into the landscaping--including a 15-ton diving rock set in the middle of the infinity pool-this included Jerusalem limestone floors, Wisconsin bluestone pathways, three kinds of Vermont slate tile on the roof, 50,000 six inch granite pavers that make up the entry courtyard, and various kinds and colorations of marble and onyx for bathrooms and the living room fireplace surround. There are hundreds of feet of tiger maple and African sapele, as well as ceilings of recycled wood on the wraparound veranda. The tinted Venetian plaster walls required 15 layers of application and buffing.

Environmental issues influenced practically every decision. The air in the house, for example, is filtered and "ozonated," says Amato. All kitchen and laundry equipment is energy efficient. Pool and fountain water, and a 20-gallon-per-minute waterfall in the master bath, is recycled. A "music niche" in the great room conceals an oxygen bar. Since Amato is fascinated by color therapy, guests are given bedrooms that offer "the most appropriate healing experience 11 through hue: earth tones for grounding, green for love and compassion, purple and white for greater spiritual consciousness, blue for communication. Even the art is all about spiritual content. There are many paintings by the "mystical expressionist" jamall' as well as watery, otherworldly landscapes by Darren Waterston.

The meditation room-with Zen gardens visible beyond its shoji-screen shades, a circular construction symbolizing eternity and connectedness, and a soaring roof visible through suspended teak grillwork overhead-suggests simultaneously the sheltering enclosure of a womb and the infinite nature of the universe.

Harmony Mountain contains much more, including a five-year supply of wood that is cured in a wall chamber and lifted hydraulically to the fireplace; miles of hiking trails; infrared saunas; a Stonehenge-like outdoor amphitheater; a labyrinth; and Asian gardens designed by Zen Associates with heated stones so that snow melts on them in winter.

Clearly, Amato understands the lessons of the Bha-gavad-Gita, the Sanskrit poem that imparts, among its many wisdoms, this one: "To the illumed man or woman, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same."

James C. Rogers III Architects, 570.563.2539,
www.jamesrogersarchitects.com; Marc-Michaels Interior Design,
407.629.2124, www.marc-michaels. com; Zen Associates,
800.834.6654, www,zenassociates.com

Opposite Page: Pornme, the water feature in the lobby, left is by Archie Held. The painting is by Jamali. in the kitchen, below, the cherry wood island with a chestnut finish is a

This page: Pendant lighting by CX Design in New York, left, casts a warm glow in the dining room. The gray-gold Jerusalem limestone flooring is inset with the same honey onyx mosaics that grace the fireplace surround.