It was the views of Long Island Sound that seduced them.

The New York City couple had come to Larchmont, New York, looking for a place to rent that was an easy commute to their Manhattan jobs. Their plan was to test the waters to see whether they liked the community enough to buy. But the minute they stepped through the front door of the 1910 Spanish Colonial house, they knew that it would be the perfect place to raise their two young sons.

“When we saw the sea, it was clear that this was a special property,” says the husband.

“The view,” the wife adds, “is expansive.”

Because they had never owned a house before, they really didn’t know what they were getting into. But it didn’t matter because they were smitten. They moved in immediately and hired Charles Hilton Architects, which is based in Greenwich, Connecticut, to restore, renovate, and reshape the house to suit their lifestyle.

The house, which is in a historic district, did, indeed, need work. The floors sagged, the walls lacked insulation, and demolition revealed unanticipated water damage and rot. The Spanish-tile roof, the exterior stucco façade, and all the windows, doors, millwork, and trim had to be replaced as did the outdated mechanicals, the electrical system, and the decades-old kitchen and baths.

What’s more, the unstable sunroom was demolished and reconstructed, and the two original first-floor bay windows and two second-floor bay windows, which were later additions, were replaced with larger windows to bring the light—-and the view of the Sound that so enchanted the owners—into the family room, living room, primary bedroom suite, and boys’ study. 

“We took the lead from the house’s century-old architecture and enhanced it,” says architect Chuck Hilton, adding that the stucco façade and wood trim were replaced with more durable PVC that looks like the real thing. “At the same time, we took the opportunity to rework the circulation of the floor plans for the first and second floors to be more efficient and better meet the owners’ needs.”

To that end, the kitchen, pantry, and mudroom were reconfigured, and the dining room was converted into a family room. Dining now takes place in what was the old study.

Perhaps the most significant alteration was the removal of a chimney and its three fireplaces, creating a different configuration in the core of the house that allowed for a more generous closet and bath in the primary suite and a larger playroom for the boys. Original details, including the exposed ceiling beams in the living room, entry hall, and family room, were preserved and paired with new built-in cabinetry and a new fireplace surround whose design reflects the style of the house.

“We kept asking ourselves what the house wanted to be,” says Charles Hilton Architects project manager Jason Wyman. “The house reflects the personality of the owners.”

That personality—colorful, exuberant and multicultural—is echoed in the décor by Jenny Wolfe Interiors of New York City.

“We didn’t want a traditional or modern style,” the wife says, adding that they selected a palette of “pleasing watery blues and greens that transition from room to room. We wanted everything to be transitional and to pay homage to our heritage—I’m from India, and my husband is from Spain.”

It is the extensive use of wallpaper, by request of the homeowners, that defines the interior spaces. Enormous white cranes wing their way across the dining room, cheetahs leap playfully around the formal powder room, and a map of the world in the boys’ bedroom opens their eager eyes to endless possibilities.

One of the wife’s favorite spaces, an office in the sitting area of the primary suite, features a mural of a scene from her native India.

“It’s a work of art in and of itself,” the husband says.

The new-old house is designed to last for generations, and the couple feels so at home that they cannot imagine living anywhere else.

“We’re a five-minute walk from the park,” the husband says. “We love the community.”

And, the wife adds, “every room is so special that I can’t choose a favorite—I love them all.”

A family of five’s new home on Long Island, with interiors that took nine months from start to finish, opened its doors just as its newest member arrived. “Our client moved in the week they had their third child—a sweet baby girl,” says interior designer Monica Fried of the New York firm that bears her name. The clients wanted a home that would grow with their family, but that didn’t feel like it was built for three children. Instead, they sought to strike a balance between luxury, style, and the younger set.

The thirty-something couple first turned to architects at Mojo Stumer Associates, who sited the home carefully on a cul de sac at the edge of a golf course, then screened it so it’s barely noticeable. That was a deliberate gesture, since this family cares about its privacy. “It’s a big home, but we’re under-the-radar people,” the client says. “On the outside, you’re not sure what to expect when you pull up—it looks traditional, but inside it’s so modern.”

That’s because interior designer Fried, who was called in when Jon Bijari Custom Homes was halfway through the project, understood how to close the gap between conservative and contemporary. Her clients wanted interiors that were transitional, modern, and clean, but in no way trendy. “She gave us four or five choices for everything, and I loved each one,” the client says. “It’s smart and warm—and it just works.”

Fried says the design process was a two-way street, with clients who gave her freedom to present the best possible ideas. Their directive was to be timeless, to be young-feeling and to be modern, and in 15 to 20 years, to be still relevant.

Toward that end, she worked with the builder and clients on material finishes like white oak paneling for gallery walls, travertine marble for entry floors, and onyx quartzite for kitchen counters. “The powder room has a marble, a beautiful Calcutta Viola, with fluted tile walls and a matching vanity,” Fried says. “The floors in the main living room are white oak, and the kitchen has tile floors, a dark granite.”

The oak-paneled front entry leads to a formal living space, with the dining room, kitchen, and family room flowing off that entry. Upstairs are five bedrooms and a large playroom. Below grade is a full basement, with a walkout to a swimming pool behind the house.

Fried chose subtle tones throughout the interior, with wood and stone that create depth and interest for each space she designed. “The homeowners are interested in collecting art, and the neutral tones give them more flexibility as their collection continues to evolve,” she says. “They’ve already acquired several contemporary pieces by Jacob Hashimoto and Orly Maiberg.”

The home is 7,500 square feet, so one of the designer’s challenges was to bring it down to human scale. “That’s one of our strengths—creating a warm environment in a large home,” she says. “And we create intimate spaces by using warm materials and window treatments to make it feel cozier.”

She sought out curated furnishings that were both functional and chic. The Brazilian lounge chairs by Jorge Zalszupin in the living room are excellent examples; they also offered a refined influence to help guide remaining selections. “There are some beautiful pieces that don’t feel like throwaways,” Fried says. “They feel really good, and are heirlooms in the making.”

Still, this is a house that’s designed to be home to three young children. It’s modern, to be sure, but it’s meant to be practical and super-livable, too. The designer used an abundance of indoor/outdoor materials for fabrics and rugs. Passing from the family room to the kitchen means moving through the living room—something that might have proven a challenge for any other designer anticipating children’s steps along the way. But not Fried.

She managed to make it childproof and stylish, while paying attention to her client’s tastes. “It can stand up to some wear and tear. but it’s elegant and feels more sophisticated too,” she says. “She has an elevated sense of style that we homed in on here—I chose an aesthetic with things she would react well to.”

That meant presenting some of her own favorites—Pierre Frey, Dedar, Mokum, and Crosby Street Studios—but focusing on finding durable and forgiving pieces that would work for a young family. “Nothing’s too precious here,” she says.

Her thoughtfulness wasn’t lost on the homemaker she collaborated with. “She can walk into a space and make it feel cool, and that you are important,” her client says. “She can bring in warmth so it’s doesn’t feel like a museum.” That’s because Fried knew from the start that this would be a forever home for a family of five.

Sporting a whimsically shaped silhouette, this petite Fishers Island cottage shaped like an observation tower instantly piques the interest of anyone curious about house design. But long before the first foundation stone was laid, or cedar shingle nailed into place, the architect-owners frequented the undeveloped parcel teeming with invasive plants just to make sure they understood the canvas upon which their house would be built.

“Just as important to us as the architecture of the house was the setting, the landscape architecture, and the site itself,” says Stewart Skolnick, cofounder of Haver & Skolnick. He and his partner, in business and life, Charles Haver, run their architecture firm out of a restored 18th-century carriage house in Litchfield County, Connecticut. “We wanted to make sure we understood the potential of the land so that we could site the house properly,” concurs Haver.

Much of the potential the two were eager to grasp consisted of views of the Atlantic Ocean and of some of the island’s 350 acres of protected conservation land. “On a clear day, you can see Montauk Point,” says Skolnick, adding that you can also glimpse several ponds—one for oyster cultivation—that surround the property. “There are reflections of water all around the house.” On this sparsely populated island, Pointer Perch, named after their German shorthaired pointer, Keeper, overlooks only nature as far as the eye can see. Even the outdoor shower offers a glimpse of the ocean.

The higher up you go on this unique parcel of land, the better and more expansive the views. “That’s really what the driving factor was in the design of the house,” says Haver of the structure’s accentuated verticality. To capture the views on all sides, the building has the living spaces on the second floor, with the primary bedroom and mudroom area below. The small kitchen sits in a dormer created by the back side of the hip roof. “It’s a very dynamic form, but its vocabulary is rooted in the Shingle Style, in which the bulk of the island’s houses were built,” explains Skolnick.

Most of Fisher Island’s approximately 600 houses were built in the 1920s, the same era Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., was hired to plan a private 1,800-acre residential development on the island. The stock market crash of 1929 dramatically slowed development.

When Haver and Skolnick were mulling the design of the building, they took their time, going through nearly a hundred different schemes over the course of a decade. “In the end, we decided we should just design for what we need,” says Haver. “It’s a weekend and vacation retreat, so the simpler it can be in terms of maintenance, the better.” The Alaskan yellow cedar shingles, bronze railings, and charcoal gray aluminum-clad windows they chose for the exterior will weather over time. Exterior paint, needing occasional touch-ups, is limited to the front door and the walkout basement’s mudroom door. 

Having spent so much time walking the property before building on it, the two men say it was a quick decision to build not only a small house—it has a single bedroom and one full bath—but also one that blended effortlessly with the existing landscape. It was important for them to keep the house very rustic and low key. 

Inside the 1,200-square-foot home, walls and ceilings painted crisp white pair with rift- and quarter-sawn oak flooring and hand-hewn beams. “Nickel-gap paneling gives it scale and recalls what an older porch might look like,” observes Haver.

For the two architects, it was a challenging exercise—one they often employ with their clients—to ascertain the minimum they needed to be comfortable. “When we started out, we had a guest room on the lower level,” explains Haver. Acknowledging that they don’t have company often, they opted instead to use the space for sorely needed storage. An outdoor shower was a must.

The combined living and dining space on the second floor “pretty much does everything for us,” says Haver. The only other room on that level is a small kitchen. “Because we like living very simply, we deliberately didn’t want any hanging cabinets,” says Skolnick, explaining why they opted for open shelving. “We wanted to be able to easily reach for a glass or a plate.” The pyramidal ceiling in the kitchen is a miniature version of the one in the living room, each a perfectly square space.

“We like living with antiques,” says Skolnick. “In Connecticut, we have a lot of Americana pieces; here we deliberately chose to go with European—French, Italian, and Spanish.” The two men also have a penchant for contrasting antique furnishings with modern abstract art, which hangs throughout the home. “So much of what we do as architects has to be very precise,” says Skolnick. “When it came to art, we wanted something that would be anything but that.”

Similarly, the paths cut through the meadow, the driveway, and the planting beds are all undulating, curving forms, because, says Skolnick, “In nature, you don’t find right angles.”

Stacked from the road down to the ocean, the two lots Haver and Skolnick purchased total 3.1 acres. They donated the lower lot to the Henry L. Ferguson Museum Land Trust, which owned all the land on the south and east side of them already, and retained the right to maintain the view and the meadow. “We knew that we would never want that lot to be developed, and by giving it to the land trust, we’ll never be tempted to do anything there, nor will anyone else in the future,” says Haver. 

“Overall, we’re very pleased with the house,” says Skolnick. “It feels like pulling on an old sweater and it feels really good. It suits us.” 

For more information, visit haverskolnickarchitects.com

When interior designer Allison Babcock set her sights on her own new waterfront home, she relished the chance to sit at both sides of the worktable, as client and designer. 

“It was exciting and intimidating,” says Babcock, principal of Allison Babcock Design in Sag Harbor, New York. Like so many homeowners, she had a timeline, a budget, and many ideas from her family to sift through. But thanks to her intuitive sense of design and how it relates to architecture, she and her family love the house and its potential to evolve over time.

Overlooking Morris Cove in the Hamptons, Babcock’s home reflects the easy livability of the interiors that she designs for her clients, with a focus on comfort and color palettes that jibe with the tremendous views. The mix of vintage and new furnishings, artworks, enticing colors and fabrics, and abundant ocean views, bathed in soft sunlight and shadows, is perfectly at ease.

Inner reflection has long been a springboard for Babcock. “I started by osmosis,” she says. Growing up in Charlottesville, Virginia, surrounded by the influence of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and other classic architecture, she felt a spark early on. “As a girl I was constantly rearranging my room,” she says. She eventually worked with the Richmond, Virginia, designer Nan McVey, and thoroughly learned her craft with Cullman & Kravis in New York City.

Reflections of her rich background pop up throughout Babcock’s home, which she shares with husband Luke and their two teenage daughters. In the first-floor open living area is a striking vignette of a 1960s teak console, 1970s cork lamp, and a painting by the Vietnamese artist Le Than Son, all topped by a whimsical chandelier from Moooi Lighting. More soft sunlight spills from the adjoining French doors, where lush ferns provide their own deep color. On the other side of the house are views of Morris Cove, part of Upper Sag Harbor Cove.

“I migrate toward more transitional and minimalist; cleaner lines and fewer things,” Babcock says of her philosophy. “We’re bombarded with messages all day long. I like the home to be quiet and restful.” She has long been attracted to barns and small farmhouses: the coziness, simplicity, and lack of pretense. 

Her own home, designed in collaboration with the architect Blaze Makoid of nearby Bridgehampton, along with local builder Greg D’Angelo, is a modern take on a barn, with three rectangular structures topped by a pitched roof and centered with a courtyard. The house is a fit with the Hamptons’ laid-back mood and outdoor lifestyle. “I really appreciate natural light, bringing the outdoors inside,” Babcock says. In fact, she and her family rarely need to turn on lights during the daytime.

One prime gathering spot on the first floor is the kitchen, with an island and countertops of Jet Mist Granite with a honed finish. A divider separates the kitchen from the dining room and cunningly hides any kitchen mess. It also serves as a niche for cookbooks. Curtainless windows shed just the right amount of light. Throughout the house, white oak flooring and cabinetry, and walls painted in Calm by Benjamin Moore, create a tranquil background. 

The adjoining dining room is anchored with a table by Rotsen Design in Miami. The table’s single walnut slab sits on an acrylic base, appearing to float. When the Babcocks have a party, the chairs, from the online marketplace 1stDibs, are easily moved. Upstairs, two bedrooms and Babcock’s office are tucked off a hallway lined with family photos.

The yard is filled with low-maintenance plantings, including evergreens, ferns, boxwood, and Japanese switchgrass. Sweet box shrubs scent the air in springtime. Separating the front of the house from the backyard and the pool is a slatted gate that casts bands of light and shadows.

Indoors and out, Babcock mostly wanted her family’s Sag Harbor home to be welcoming. “We live a very active life,” she says. “I needed the house to be low maintenance, clean looking, and relaxed, without it being a lot of work. I don’t believe in things being absolutely perfect. That would be very hard to live with.”

For more information, visit allisonbabcock.com

In architect Steven Harris’s opinion, there are two schools of thought when it comes to living at the beach. “Some people do exactly what they would have done in town,” he says. “They may never even step foot on the beach.” On the other hand, and more in line with Harris’s ethos, there are those who wholeheartedly embrace their proximity to the ocean, the more relaxed rhythm of their days, and a laid-back approach to entertaining. This would describe the clients for whom he redesigned an existing house on the east end of Long Island to better suit their easy-going, connected-to-nature lifestyle. 

First, Harris and his team at Steven Harris Architects moved the house closer to the ocean and reoriented it parallel to the shoreline. Under the direction of landscape designer David Kelly of Rees Roberts + Partners, they added a stunning zero-edge pool and refurbished the landscape so that the house appears nestled into the dunes amid native plantings. Hollies, oaks, serviceberries and other newly planted indigenous shrubs camouflage the piles, which were built to raise the original house after flooding in 2012. “We used this extra height to our advantage and designed a new house within the existing shell,” says Harris.

Like many houses in this area of Long Island, the layout is upside-down from what we are traditionally used to, with all the bedrooms but the master at ground level and the public rooms—communal living, dining, and kitchen—on the second floor, situated up high to capture the views of sea and dunes. The only interruption to the open-concept space is a single floating partition between the breakfast room and the living room that, unless you utilize its pocket doors, still allows easy circulation in that important gathering area.

From here, large sliding doors open directly onto an all-weather screened porch along the east, ocean-facing side of the building. And making the ultimate connection between the living area, the porch, and the outdoors, 14 folding windows from HeartWood Fine Windows and Doors stretch horizontally end to end. When folded upward, the window openings are almost twice as large as traditional double-hung. The notable absence of mullions makes the inside-outside separation melt away. As a result, says Harris, “It’s a screened porch when the windows are open, an enclosed room when they’re closed.”

On the lower level, an identical screened porch with a band of windows echoing those directly above them has doors that open to the deck and pool, areas designed spatially to achieve a trompe l’oeil effect between where the water of the pool ends and the ocean begins. Not only is the pool water in the same plane as the deck, it is also as close in color to the ocean as Kelly’s team could get it, using a Wet Edge finish of ground-down pebbles. “We wanted the colors to be similar, so your eye skips across the pool water, across the dune, and then out to the ocean,” says Kelly.

Engaging with the pool and deck at this level are five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. “One of the great joys of living at the beach is sleeping on the porch and hearing the ocean,” says Harris, who, having grown up in a large, extended family that enjoyed a seaside house in Florida, knows of which he speaks. “With this house, we wanted the rooms on the lower floor to have that opportunity.”

No matter where you choose to be—inside or outside the house, or on one of the porches—there are no “secondhand spaces,” says Harris. “Every room in the house is desirable and has a really wonderful use.” His goal, he adds, was “to make it a house that would accommodate the everyday rituals of life at the beach”—entertaining and eating outside or inside, having a drink on the rooftop terrace with pizza from the wood-fired oven, swimming for recreation or exercise, playing tennis, sitting by the fireplace and watching a movie. “There’s very little hierarchy in terms of what is a formal space and what is an informal space. It’s all pretty continuous and intended to be used equally.”

The same unifying philosophy and deference to the view underly the interiors of the house, designed by Lucien Rees Roberts. “The palette is very restrained and quiet because essentially you have a 70-foot-long painting of the ocean on one side and you don’t want to detract from that,” says Harris. The color palette is complementary to the tones found in nature along the dunes, and rich, comfortable, and durable materials like wood and stone are used liberally in the classically modern home.

“We chose many pieces for their timeless, casual sensibility,” says Rees Roberts. “The client wanted people to be able to sit in any chair in a wet bathing suit and not worry. All fabrics we selected needed to meet this requirement, and the wonderful exterior-grade fabrics now available allowed us to do this. An Eames chair, for example, is covered in a soft, durable Perennials fabric.” 

Applying his firsthand understanding of how to live your best life at the beach, Harris has achieved a goal that is near and dear to him. “You want your house to be simple, comfortable, obliging,” he says. “The ability of a house to allow that kind of ease is really important.” 

For more information, visit stevenharrisarchitects.com; reesroberts.com; heartwoodwindowsanddoors.com.

Anyone who’s ever acquired a summer house has this request: that it be completed by the start of the season. The notion of complete, however, can vary. For the owners of this Shingle style custom home designed by architect David Neff in Quogue, complete meant every last detail in place, inside and out. This included a thoughtful collection of art. 

Katharine Earnhardt, founder of Mason Lane Art Advisory, had worked with the clients, a professional couple with two young boys, to build a collection for their TriBeCa loft, so she wasn’t exactly starting from scratch. “We looked at that artwork, which is vibrant and urban contemporary, to determine what we would do differently,” Earnhardt says. “In Quogue, they wanted a softer palette, fewer hard edges, and nothing metallic.” 

Guided by the couple’s tastes and the overall scheme that interior designer Jennifer Garrigues presented, Earnhardt assembled a 40-plus piece collection with an ephemeral, not too serious feel. “I never want the art to match the throw pillows, but I’m not there to create a new vision either,” Earnhardt says. “I’m there to further the vision and make the design shine.” 

That design, Garrigues says, is “clean, but not minimalistic, very child-friendly, and with a touch of simple glamour.” There’s lots of white, as befits a beach house, with plenty of blue, a color that both wife and husband love. “The house feels very open,” she says. “There are no mad, large-scale prints, but every room has a punch.” 

Blue makes its mark from the start, with a fun, navy Dutch door and a white pitted iron bench upholstered in performance fabric with a mosaic-like pattern. Earnhardt subtly reinforces the decor and the coastal locale with Mike Solomon’s hypnotic painting made from watercolor on papers infused in resin that resembles reflections of water. “As the light changes, hexagons appear and disappear,” Earnhardt says. “It’s very dynamic and sets the tone without being a literal or cliché landscape which was very important to us.” 

Just off the entry in the living room, whitewashed wall boards and a jute rug with a topstitched stripe establishes a neutral backdrop for crisp white sofas, tactile navy accents, and a hint of glimmer from a hammered metal drinks table with an iridescent shell top. Rather than add a piece that could be perceived as nautical, Earnhardt went for a composition of frolicsome forms reminiscent of Matisse’s cut-outs. The artwork by Paige Kalena Follmann counterbalances the room’s symmetry while echoing its airiness. Earnhardt also points to how the bits of black bolstering the room’s design. “Contrast helps a room feel energized and alive,” she says. 

In the adjacent sunroom-turned-dining room, the art goes quiet so as not to distract from the antique Chinese buffet. Still, its layered mix of media—ink, silk, and beeswax on panel—ensures that Eric Blum’s abstract isn’t invisible. Earnhardt’s juxtaposition of contemporary against historic aligns perfectly with Garrigues’ approach. “I design like I throw a cocktail party, mixing the older generation with the younger one,” Garrigues says. 

While one set of French doors opens to a covered porch, another pair leads to a languid green guest suite. Here, the art embraces the room’s hue. “It’s a hard color to work with if you’re fighting against it,” Earnhardt explains. A magical landscape photograph by Petros Koublis hangs over a Balinese-inspired canopy bed, providing a window to an otherworldly forest beset by fireflies. The choice adheres to Earnhardt’s practice of using less pricey pieces in secondary rooms and simultaneously broadens the spectrum of media and subject matter. 

Earnhardt follows suit on the other side of the house by inserting a pair of llama prints in the playroom and a humorous piece portraying stick figures swimming in an upstairs guest bedroom with a view of the pool. “Diversity of media, subject matter, and style is important,” she says. 

On the second level landing, Eugene Healey’s abstracted, cerulean seascape with collaged strips of fabric lures people up the stairs. Its palette speaks to the couple’s love of blue while the medium injects textured richness into the spare space, as does the antique Chinese console table and glazed ceramic lamps. “It’s simple, but there’s a patina,” Garrigues says of the tableau. Earnhardt adds, “If this were a catch-all place with clutter, I’d have chosen more streamlined art.” 

Down the hall, Garrigues created a serene primary bedroom suite where a white, nailhead-studded upholstered bed stretches out like a cloud against the chambray-colored grasscloth-covered walls. Karine Leger’s organic gems in dusky colors draw the eye up to the penny board paneled ceiling. Like the mathematically-influenced ombre oil painting by Nicky Broekhuysen over the dresser, Legere’s commission offers softness with a layered effect. And, as with so many other pieces in the collection, Earnhardt achieves her goal. “These works refer to what’s happening in nature without being a blatant reference.” 

Architect: David Neff Architect, davidneffarchitect.com 
Interior designer: Jennifer Garrigues, jennifergarrigues.com 
Art consultant: Mason Lane Art Advisory, masonlaneart.com 
Builder: Hamptons Habitat Fine Homebuilding, hamptonshabitat.com 
Landscape designer: Elliott Templeton Landscape Design, templetonlandscape.com

Looking to build a retreat on Long Island in the early 1970s, one man was drawn to the remote, sparsely populated East End where he could stretch his legs on beach constitutionals, fish to unwind, and tend his vegetable garden, all while basking in the peace and quiet so welcome after the frenzy of Manhattan.

Family lore has it that he wanted nothing fancier than a shack in the dunes, and while the house—designed by up-and-coming modernist architect Norman Jaffe—was grander than that, its occupants made sure that the spirit of the abode remained humble. Since then, the man’s children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren have enjoyed easygoing summers and holidays at the vacation home, restoring it with an ever-deepening ethos enriched by family history.

And so, when the 3,500-square-foot heirloom house desperately needed renovating 35 years after construction, the task was assigned, fittingly, to Asher Israelow, a grandson of the original owner completing his final year of architecture at RISD. Several established and prominent architects were under consideration for the commission, but Israelow offered something more valuable to the project than an elaborate portfolio.

“The house is a living exhibition, curated by four generations of family holidays and summer weekends,” says Israelow, now an architectural and bespoke furniture designer based in Western Massachusetts. With fellow RISD architecture student Robert Highsmith, he presented his parents (his mother, a sculptor, is the original owner’s daughter) with a formal proposal that convincingly addressed the pivotal question as he saw it: “How do you fix a house that no longer functions but maintain the language of the original architect so that it feels the same?”

Geometric lines, neutral woods, modernist detailing and attention to natural light and shadow are all hallmarks of homes designed by Jaffe, who headed up a practice in Bridgehampton that lasted from 1967 until his untimely death in 1993. Touted by some as a “true romantic” and “an uncompromising genius in the vein of Frank Lloyd Wright,” Jaffe, says Israelow, was “a bit more of a beachside maverick and under-credited” compared to his better-known contemporaries, like Charles Gwathmey and Richard Meier. He created and developed a personal aesthetic for the more than 800 homes he designed—55 in the East End alone—ranging from weekend hideaways to summer estates, all of which blended into the landscape.

“What I realized about a lot of Jaffe’s work was not only his attention to materials and to the sculptural gestures but also his attention to proportions,” explains Israelow. “If you change the proportions too much it starts to change the character of the building. We had to see how far we could push it without breaking the character.” 

This is where renewal came into lockstep with restoration. All the windows were replaced, the kitchen and bedrooms enlarged, the bathrooms updated, and clever ways devised to bring more light into dark parts of the house—all fairly standard home renovations. Not typical, however, was the degree to which the building had to be brought up to myriad modern building and safety codes, such as raising the house by five feet to meet new FEMA codes.

“Because architecture had changed so much over those 40 years, the renovation was almost surgical at some points,” says Israelow, explaining that even though the house was stripped down to the studs, the footprint was altered very little.  “We ended up expanding the house by four feet but did it in such a way that you couldn’t really tell.” Indeed, before and after photographs of the monolithic, vertical-cedar clad house are startlingly similar. “The façade was entirely sacred,” says Israelow.

The expansion of the house was rooted in the kitchen. “The design was terrible and it didn’t function very well,” says Israelow. To accommodate the family of passionate foodies who spend their time cooking together, substantial upgrades were made. “My family loves to cook and [the original] kitchen was designed more for someone who was setting out a plate of hors d’oeuvres.” 

Certain interior details reveal the lengths to which Israelow went preserving the integrity of design. The original marble dining table and kitchen counters were recreated using material from the same quarry, perfectly aligned to the initial design, but tailored to the enlarged space.  “Although the shape of the dining room changed, all the other details were materially and even aesthetically the same, so you could barely notice any difference,” says Israelow. “It was just a larger, more gracious space.”

But then there were instances where contemporary materials needed to replace those from 40 years ago, like in the kitchen, where the white laminate cabinetry from the 70s ceded its place to German-designed Bulthaup cabinetry that is similar aesthetically but has a cleaner, more modern look. In the same vein, Israelow liked the look of pickled white oak floors in the original house but not how they had taken on a greenish cast over time. In the renovation, the considerable evolution in contemporary finishes proved advantageous to the lightened white oak used for floors and walls. 

The upstairs living room hearth posed a totally different challenge. Israelow speculates that the square black slate tile used for the hearth was his grandfather’s decision, not that of Jaffe, who more likely would have created something sculptural and monolithic out of fieldstone. By replacing the small tiles with large pieces of bluestone, says Israelow, “We created a fireplace in the spirit of Jaffe, imagining what he would have designed today.”

Finding ways to enhance the existing house without diminishing its character was ever present in Israelow’s mind. The downstairs living room with a ceiling height lower than eight feet benefitted greatly by raising the house. Previously a “dark and oppressive space to be in,” notes Israelow, now, with the house elevated and the living room floor lowered, the 16-foot window walls finally allowed sunlight and ocean air to circulate, pulling the natural landscape into the first floor.” 

Preserving Jaffe’s legacy drove the project aesthetically but Israelow made sure that he and Highsmith had room to play. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the new pool house, where, says Israelow, “We wanted to do something that aligned with the existing architecture of the main house, not compete with it, but at the same time define our own language. We designed the entire thing almost like a piece of furniture, where every single material seam lined up. We really wanted it to feel like a little glowing jewel box on the other end of the pool.” 

A coffee table in the pool house repurposed from the main house represents an overarching desire to reuse as much of the existing furniture as possible, both to ensure aesthetic continuity and to keep the generational family narrative alive. Israelow’s mother’s art pieces, from her college days to the present, are placed throughout the home.

“Part of her story is living in this house and has been brought into the renovation,” notes Israelow, who credits his mother’s penchant for natural materials and grand sculptural gestures and her “inherent material brilliance” for some of the home’s biggest aesthetic achievements, like the exquisite retractable screen separating the kitchen from the dining room and the one-ton bathtub carved out of a solid piece of dense limestone. She was also the inspiration for Israelow designing and building every bed in the house.

When the house was first built in the early 1970s, sustainability was far from the hot-button issue it is today. In the renovation, Israelow tried to incorporate construction standards that would make the building as energy efficient as possible, such as installing solar panels on the roof, passive water, and geothermal for the heating of the pool, pool house, and main house. “We also tried to make it as locally sourced as possible,” he says.

Although this is the story of one particular, beloved family home, Israelow’s sights are set on a more universal goal. “There are a lot of extraordinary masterworks here by young architects who eventually became extremely famous,” he says. “I’m hoping that there will be more restoration and attention given to the history and context of this architecture, which is the first on the East Coast to define this new version of modernism.” 

For more information, visit asherisraelow.com.

In residential architecture, the relationship between house and landscape—between indoors and outdoors—is never more important than in a vacation home. These houses are where families go to relax, to get away from what they do every day at work or school, to entertain guests, and to reconnect with each other. And it typically happens in the warmer months, when people feel the urge to spend as much time outside basking in nature as possible. 

In North Haven, New York, a couple with three children decided to build a secondary house where they could do all of that. They brought on architect Blaze Makoid of Blaze Makoid Architecture of Bridgehampton, New York, interior designer David Scott of David Scott Interiors in New York City, and landscape architect Edmund Hollander of Hollander Design Landscape Architects of New York and Chicago, who all worked together to design a special seasonal house that not only fits the family’s lifestyle but also the house’s location. 

“When they pulled up to the house, they wanted to see the water,” says Makoid about what drove the overall plan. “They wanted to know when they arrived why they chose that property.” So, he designed the central living room to be “a two-sided glass box so you can see right through to the bay.” Glass panels open up both sides, making the entire area feel like a large courtyard that the rest of the house circulates around. 

And the rest of the house? It packs a big punch. After three years of designing and building within the limited footprint that was allowed, it was finished. There are seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, three powder rooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, and an office all in 7,500 square feet surrounded by Hollander’s landscape, which incorporates native plantings and stretches of lawn.

The first-level spaces are geared for easy circulation and indoor/outdoor connections, while the second floor, made up of mostly bedrooms and a roof deck, is for entertaining lots of guests. In the primary bedroom suite, the view across the bay with Shelter Island to the north and Sag Harbor to the east is optimized with a glass corner that opens to a private balcony, where there’s an outdoor fireplace and an exterior private staircase that leads down to the pool and hottub area. On the other side of this suite, the house’s main staircase, made of curved glass and Venetian plaster that extends to the ceiling, anchors the interior as an impressive visual element. 

Despite all this, Scott says, “The most interesting thing about the house is that it is not intimidating. It’s compact with a lot of details and it exudes quality.”

“We spent a lot of time with our clients on the palette of the materials, what would be durable and consistent,” says Makoid about the limestone panels, teak cladding, and metal panels used outside. Since the relationship between the outside and inside is so strong, these materials are found inside as well. In the dining room, for example, teak that clads the outside comes in and wraps interior walls, and a Venetian plaster ceiling is both outside and inside.

For the interior design, Scott says, “They wanted something that was elegant but livable and quite contemporary.” He developed a color scheme from a photograph he took during his travels in Patagonia. “That’s how the design process works a lot of the time—those kernels of inspiration, whatever they may be, can be strong parts of how we create the color scheme and guide our furniture selections,” says Scott.

In this case, white, beige, and golden tones were mostly used to evoke that Patagonian landscape, with bright teal accents suggesting a brilliant river. Within this palette, “Most of the furnishings are contemporary and I curated the entire art collection for this house,” says Scott, pointing out the Charles Ramos armchairs in the living room, a Bert Stern Marilyn photograph in the office, and a Murano vintage eight-tiered smoked glass chandelier above that central staircase.

A typical Saturday for this family involves waking up, grabbing breakfast, going out for a run, a swim, a bike ride, or a tee time, and then gathering back at the house to relax and be together with whatever friends and family members are visiting. This house supports that lifestyle while also being stylish and deeply connected with nature. “We wanted to dissolve the idea of being inside or outside,” says Makoid. “We wanted to make every space in the project occupiable.” And when it’s full of people during the summer or for a weekend holiday, every space is.

For more inspiration, visit blazemakoid-architecture.com; davidscottinteriors.com; hollanderdesign.com.

New York-based interior designer Vicente Wolf arranges his schedule by the seasons of the year. 

In the summer, he does apartments in Manhattan. During the winter, he tackles homes in the Hamptons. “It’s great having a house in Montauk,” he says. “If I go out there on a Thursday or Friday, I go to the project first, and then to my house—it’s a visit along the way.” 

He’s been practicing for more than 40 years now, designing between 25 to 30 projects in the Hamptons. His most recent is the renovation of a 2,200 square-foot house built in the 1980s on Moriches Bay in Westhampton. He did it for a New York couple for whom he’s worked on two previous projects. 

“We’ve known each other for 5,000 years,” he says. “When you work with some people, you do the job and that’s it. And then some become friends—like these did.” 

The couple bought their home from a builder 38 years ago, using it mostly as a weekend summer house, and spending the occasional full week there. But it was starting to show its age. “They wanted it to become contemporary,” he says. “Inside, a lot of the details spoke of a different time.” 

The couple has known Wolf practically since he started out on his own. “He designed our first home in Manhattan, and we were thrilled, and when we moved to our second home 22 years ago, we loved what he did then,” she says. “So when we decided to remodel our beach home, there was no reason to look anywhere else.” 

The Interior 

Wolf’s assignment was to make the home feel young. “It was really tired,” he says. “We wanted it to be cohesive – open and light and different from what they had.” 

It was a tough assignment, the client admits, because it was closed-in and claustrophobic. “We asked him to make it open, light and bright,” she says. “And he did – I have a ton more seating now, and the dining room is opened up.” 

She has a penchant for whites and off-whites. “We worked with that, and stretched it a little with taupes on the rugs, and that sets off the lightness,” the designer says. 

He had the floors sanded down and stained dark, a contrast that emphasized the whites even more. He tore down walls, replacing wood beams with steel ‘I” beams, and traded black-framed windows with white ones. To make the dark staircase essentially disappear, he painted it white. 

The idea was to do away with the boxiness of the 1980s-era rooms, lighten the walls and open up the vistas. “It’s much more open-looking,” the client says. “You can see in both directions now—the view is unencumbered of water and wetlands.” 

Wolf deliberately removed the irrelevant. “It’s a sort of space that reads so beachy – everywhere you look you see water, and it’s very open and relaxed,” he says. “We aimed for it to be easily maintained and comfortable to be in – and very functional, which is key.” 

The Finishes 

For finishes and furnishings, Wolf looked to what he saw out of the windows – and added some Asian and midcentury modern layers. “It’s meant for you to look at it and not know when it was done,” he says. “And you’ll look at it in 10 years, and it still will have a timeless quality.” 

He added furniture pieces and fabrics that he designed himself, like the coffee table and upholstery. Fabrics are indoor/outdoor material because people retreat inside, wet from the pool. “It’s always important to match the aesthetic with functionality,” he says. “Using outdoor fabrics was the best way we could to use light colors.” 

A shortened “u”-shaped sofa in the living area is angled for views of the television and the outdoors as well. “It’s designed so you see the fireplace and you can watch television and look out the window,” he says. “The house is always filled with people – they have grandchildren and wanted as much seating as possible.” 

The Reaction

Wolf had the run of the entire place while his renovation was in progress. The clients were nowhere to be seen for the whole winter, but came out when it was finished in the spring. “The first day they walked in, she said: ‘This is not my house – this is a different house,’” he says. “They were ecstatic.” 

They arrived on a Friday and stayed the entire weekend with friends and family. “We love it,” the client says. “It’s a dramatic difference – like night and day.” 

But in reality, it’s the newest summer project from one of Manhattan’s more gifted designers.

For more information, visit vicentewolf.com.

As we all prepare to travel again, short hops between lower-risk vacation destinations like Nantucket, Boston, New York City and The Hamptons have become a preferred solution to quick access to safe havens. Whether travelers are looking for a last-minute summer getaway, an early fall business trip or a ride over the breathtaking fall foliage of New England, Magellan Jets is a resource to escape from harm while also keeping business moving. 

In direct response to the high-demand for safe, purely private transportation on specific routings in recent summers, Magellan Jets has partnered with AAG helicopters, operators of the largest fleet of Sikorsky S-76 helicopters in New York, to bring back the popular 10-hour Sikorsky helicopter card, so that more people can have access to another great solution to reach their destinations safely.  

Fly safely aboard the same premier helicopters used by Fortune 100 and heads of state for executive travel. Featuring a spacious cabin with seating for up to five guests, the Sikorsky S-76 also has a nearly soundproof cabin, with headsets not required. Additionally, travel with peace of mind, as our expert Flight Support and enhanced health protocols ensure the safety of your family, loved ones, and guests.

Based on routings that either begin or end in New York, the 10-hour card includes availability to the following cities with fixed hourly, point-to-point pricing of $128,362.80; and all flights are exempt from the 7.5% federal excise tax for the rest of 2020:

• Nantucket 
• Boston Area 
• The Hamptons
• Cape Cod 
• Martha’s Vineyard 
• Maine 
• Washington D.C. 
• Airport transfers to and from any NYC area airport

As the world rethinks how to travel safely and responsibly, Magellan Jets is enhancing its product portfolio to get current and new customers where they need to go. For travelers looking to add a yacht charter to their Nantucket or Hamptons trip, Magellan Jets has partnered with IYC Yachts to complete their personal or business adventure.

To speak with a Private Aviation Consultant regarding the 10-hour S-76 program, call 844-993-3280 or click here for more details.