Huntington Bay home tied to architect Charles Gwathmey lists for $1,085,888
The architects "drew upon the long American Modernist tradition of tying the building into the site and creating a place for the contemplation of nature," Architectural Record wrote. Credit: Edward Pappalardo
The modernist architecture of Charles Gwathmey is usually associated with Amagansett beach houses. One of the only homes with a Gwathmey connection on the North Shore of Long Island, which has been owned by two renowned writers and received a design award, has come on the market for $1,085,888.
In 1970, Gwathmey and his then-partner, Richard Henderson, of the firm Gwathmey & Henderson, were commissioned by playwright and screenwriter Loring Mandel to design a home in Huntington Bay.
Mandel and his wife had purchased just under two acres of a valley that had been part of an arboretum for hybrid rhododendron and wanted a home that would fit well on the property.
"This house was designed to take the smallest part of the land, to catch the sun exactly right, to feed the eye with natural surfaces and unobstructed views of the valley," Mandel wrote in an article published in the Dec. 6, 1970, issue of The New York Times.
In 1972 the home, along with 19 other houses and eight apartments, received an Award of Excellence in Residential Design from the publication Architectural Record.
"Even now, Henderson's design is unusual in an area of large, early 20th-century residences and POMO 'Macmansions,'" the publication wrote, noting that the design combined "three styles of architecture that are related but separate strands of Modernism."
"The wish of the client that the house must respect and serve the site meant that the architect drew upon the long American Modernist tradition of tying the building into the site and creating a place for the contemplation of nature," the article reads. "In contrast to this, the form of the architecture and its plan combine the new styles of architecture of which Gwathmey Henderson were pioneers -- the formal geometries of the New York Five School and the pre-war European Modernism of vaguely nautical white walls, balconies, pilotis and thick, flat roofs. Unusually, the building also combines a concrete and wooden structure that adds to the sense of a hybrid Modernism expertly synthesized."
This Huntington Bay home was designed by architect Charles Gwathmey and his then-partner, Richard Henderson, of the firm Gwathmey & Henderson. Credit: Edward Pappalardo
The article also notes the open kitchen, which is unique for its time.
For the architects, "the beauty was in the property," says Belinda Wiseman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Laffey International Realty, who is co-listing the property with Leslie Delboy. "That valley was the jewel of everything."
The home was later owned by Alyson Richman, the bestselling author of five novels, including "The Lost Wife."
The three-bedroom, 2½-bathroom home features glass doors and patios that overlook the secluded, wooded property and walls and ceilings clad in cedar.
For the architects, "the beauty was in the property," says Belinda Wiseman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Laffey International Realty. Credit: Edward Pappalardo
A buyer may want to update the kitchen and bathrooms, perhaps with white quartz or other natural materials but otherwise the house has stood the test of time.
"It was very ahead of its time in terms of the ergonomics and geometric lines of the house," Wiseman says. "If you blended an apartment in Manhattan with a house in the Hamptons, this is what you'd get."
