Joe Massaro’s personal charm and determination should not be underestimated. Many before him had tried and failed to realise Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposal for a 5,000 sq ft residence on Petra Island, a heart-shaped private islet on Lake Mahopac, in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Massaro, who grew up down the road in Elmsford, paints himself as an unlikely champion for the build. He was not born into a design family. After school, his parents discouraged him from joining their service station as an auto mechanic. Instead, he fabricated forced-air ducts for industrial buildings and crossed paths with the eminent US architect IM