1 The First Annual East End Design Awards A Guerrilla Plan for East Hampton Village Solar Power on the East End Houseplants for the Frequent Traveler Passive Solar Hot-Air Balloons and Other Inventions
A magazine with The East Hampton Star
Free Life Balloon Launch, Springs, 1970
high quality photos from a simpler time prints available at easthamptonstar.zenfolio.com
WINERY OPEN DAILY YEAR-ROUND 11- 5 1927 SCUTTLEHOLE ROAD BRIDGEHAMPTON (631) 537-7224
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Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Levi Shaw-Faber Senior Editor Bess Rattray
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Design PLAYLAB, INC.
Intro
Contributors Zoe Cohen, Biddle Duke, Eliza Callahan, Tara Israel, Olivia Lerner, Maziar Behrooz, Bruce Engel, Jeffrey Wong, Chloe Liang
My favorite houses on the East End are always ones that respect and add to the natural environment. Rather than blending in entirely, as if too embarrassed to be seen, these houses interact with and react to their surroundings. (See the Bates Masi house on Page 42, which makes use of prevailingwind patterns.) While it’s important to preserve our untouched natural spaces—and on the East End, we actually have a lot of those—it’s equally important to think about the built environment not as a separate entity from nature, but as a part of the landscape, a part that can increase the beauty of the area. End magazine seeks to create a new “public space” where we can discuss design like this, as a part of our natural environment. In our inaugural issue, we jump right into the dialogue about residential solar (Page 4), through which perfectly average homeowners can decrease their negative impact on our climate. We meet a young artist inspired by nature (Page 10) who, among other things, builds hot air balloons that create lift using only the heat from
Editorial Assistants Nina Channing, Julia Hart, Oliver Levine, Morgan Oppenheimer
the sun. We offer some simple tips for bringing nature into your house. And, in our most thought-provoking feature, we turn our attention to local architects who have envisioned a whole new plan for East Hampton Village (Page 18). We close this issue by announcing the winners of the first annual East End Design Awards (Page 33), as selected by some of the nation’s top design professionals. We hope that End can be a resource for how we all can contribute to our environment, so that we not only preserve the natural beauty of the East End, but enhance it. Levi Shaw-Faber Publisher & Editor-in-Chief levi@eastenddesignawards.com Levi Shaw-Faber lives in East Hampton Village and New York City’s Chinatown. He was the founding associate editor of The East Hampton Star’s EAST magazine. In addition to editing End, he writes proposals for WXY architecture+urban design, a New York-based firm.
End is printed on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper made with 10-percent-recycled material. For advertising, please email levi@eastenddesignawards.com On the Cover Walter De Maria’s 32-ton Large Grey Sphere, composed of granite bricks, in a garden in Bridgehampton. De Maria (1935–2013) is best known for his nature-inspired, site-specific work, including New York Earth Room on Wooster Street in Manhattan and The Lighting Field in New Mexico. Landscape architecture by LaGuardia Design Group. Photo by Eric Striffler. See Page 62. On this Page The editor at East Hampton’s LongHouse Reserve, inside of Fly’s Eye Dome, designed by Buckminster Fuller and produced by John Kuhtik. Photo by Zoe Cohen.
By Biddle Duke Solar energy isn’t just good for the planet (and the homeowner’s reputation as an altruist). Today it makes real financial sense—and can have a bold impact on domestic aesthetics, too. 6
A home with photovoltaic solar panels on Daniel’s Lane in Sagaponack. Photo courtesy of Green Logic.
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Home solar systems are beautiful. Just ask anyone who has one. Modern, sleek, and efficient, they signal a shimmering, rebellious independence and—as anyone who’s crunched the numbers knows— home solar makes financial sense.
and designers are scouring the market for ways to attract consumers with cheaper, better ways to save, building more handsome systems, and finding nifty approaches like batteries to be more fully energy independent.
“Our market these days is 100 percent economically driven,” said Marc Cléjan, the founder and chief executive of Southampton-based GreenLogic, the East End’s largest solar installer.
This spring, Tesla rolled out a sleek, handsome Solar Roof that both converts the sun’s energy into electricity and serves as a roof tile. Combined with Tesla’s new compact Powerwall battery unit, the complete Tesla roof-and-battery system enables homeowners to juice their batteries by day and tap them when needed, during periods when the sun is not shining or in the event of an outage.
The boom in rooftop solar across the globe has led to more competition, innovation, and lower equipment and installation costs, all of which are driving the smart money to home-solar electric generation.
American solar installations reached a record high in 2015, making solar energy the biggest source of new electricity generation last year. Although wind is the fastest-growing sustainable power source worldwide, in the United States it is solar, which has benefitted from tax credits and rebate programs.
In a typically slick marketing campaign Tesla is banking on its stunning, compact, efficient designs. But the jury is still out. Tesla, Elon Musk’s company that also manufactures automobiles and has a showroom in East Hampton, is entering into a crowded and competitive market of rooftop systems and in-home battery backups. The cost of an installed Tesla Solar Roof is reportedly higher than the combined cost of installing a conventional roof and building a standard rooftop solar system. And several companies already offer discreet, sleek low-profile panels, challenging Tesla on style.
Home system costs have dropped by an average of five percent in 2015 alone, according to industry experts. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs
As for Tesla’s costly batteries, their main competitors are other battery-makers and fuel-powered generators—but mostly the electric
“The math just works,” Cléjan said of comparing the choice to remain on utility power versus switching to the sun.
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A Tesla Solar Roof. These shingles are embedded with photovoltaic solar cells. Renderings courtesy of Tesla.
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grid itself. Under advantageous net-metering deals, homeowners with home-solar systems for the most part choose to remain connected to utilities like Long Island’s PSEG, essentially using the utility as a battery backup, for an annual hookup charge of about $12 per month. LONG ISLAND, A SOLAR LEADER Some four percent—or more than 22,000 homes and businesses—of PSEG’s Long Island customers have rooftop solar systems, compared with one percent statewide, and that figure is expected to double in five years, PSEG’s director of energy efficiency and renewables, Mike Voltz, said in a recent interview. Although PSEG doesn’t have numbers for the East End, Green Logic’s Cléjan said his company has installed more than 3,000 systems, and business this summer has continued to be strong. Spurred by the success of GreenLogic and the growing appetite for smart, sustainable homes (with no recurring oil, electric, or other energy costs), Cléjan launched a company two years ago to build net-zero modern homes: houses whose electric and heating needs are met entirely from sustainable sources, including solar and geothermal technologies. We’re not talking tiny, hippy houses, but architecturally modern, beautiful, spacious, comfortable homes with smart, fully automated systems. ModernNetZero, as the company is called, has sold three such houses so far, all of them in East Hampton, and three more are in the works. SOLAR ENERGY FUTURE Everything to do with home-generated power and the electric grid is in furious and dynamic evolution and transition. Some financial incentives are ending: local utilities have stopped offering rebates, the Trump administration appears to be less inclined to encourage solar, and federal tax incentives are set to wind down starting in 2020. International trade disputes and the looming threat of Trump-driven protectionism could threaten the flow of cheap solar technology from Southeast Asia and China, the source of the least expensive solar equipment. Additionally, a major court case underway now in United States courts could end up protecting U.S. manufacturers and their more expensive products. So when it comes to the overall cost to consumers, it’s anyone’s guess, but there seems to be a leveling off after years of steady declines. Yet most in the industry believe rooftop solar systems will continue to make economic sense for houses and businesses for the foreseeable future.
how to allow homeowners to soak up cheap power from the sun and slash carbon emissions in the bargain without completely undermining the grid itself—and simultaneously raising electric bills and the risk of blackouts. “Over time,” PSEG’s Voltz said, “the old energy-distribution model is being replaced by a two-way model” of power coming from thousands of small sustainable-energy systems on the grid and also from a utility.
A big unknown, however, is the electric grid itself: How big will it have to be, and how will it sustain itself financially? Almost all solar homes still depend on power companies and their power lines to soak up their excess electricity during sunny afternoons and deliver power at night. One of the big existential questions facing grid operators is
For power companies, the cost of central power plants and transmission and distribution networks continues to increase while the costs of much more local solutions, like wind and solar, are decreasing. What do utilities do in the face of that growing disconnect? And can they move away from making money by selling power toward a model that pays them for creating value for customers and society? Among the challenging issues is net metering. Net metering is the ability of homeowners to sell sun-generated power to utility companies and buy it back at the same price when their rooftop systems are not producing. Net metering is also the key factor in making home solar economically viable, because net metering rates were set by state regulators to encourage a defection to solar. But the result has been that utilities have lost customers in droves and revenue in millions. It’s no wonder that utilities like PSEG want to un-sweeten net metering
A $5,500 Tesla Powerwall 2 rechargeable battery designed to enable self-consumption of solar power.
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“Solar is growing on Long Island by 8,000 systems per year,” PSEG’s Voltz said. “We see that trend continuing.”
BIDDLE DUKE
deals in the years ahead (in New York, for example, they are governed by state regulations set to expire in four years). “There is a flaw, long term, with net metering,” Voltz said. “Those who are net metering are subsidized by those who are not.” Not only will net metering likely become less attractive to potential home-solar customers, but that $12-a-month connection fee to PSEG could go up, too, industry watchdogs agree, to help the utility pay to maintain and improve its complicated and costly grid. However, it’s worth emphasizing that homeowners who sign up for solar now are protected from ever losing their net-metering deals in the future. Amid this constant change, innovators see opportunity. Michael McDonald, a “resilience” expert who has worked on community health and utility projects worldwide, is collaborating with sustainable energy experts, including members of the East Hampton Sustainable Energy Committee, to create downsized grids powered by neighborhood home solar systems. One such effort being discussed by McDonald and his East End Resiliency Network is in Springs. The idea is that households with rooftop solar would sell electricity to their neighbors at below-market rates, generating cash for solar-system owners, and keeping local power local. Eventually, such small-scale power grids could invest in communal batteries and leave the larger grid entirely. “The fleeing from the central grid to sustainable energy is like having the control tower at J.F.K. control every plane in the southern New York air space: It’s just not possible,” McDonald said. “Locally distributed energy is the way of the future,” he added.” PSEG itself is localizing its power generation and distribution. The company installed two new battery substations in East Hampton and Montauk this year to provide a power backup during peak demand in the summer and storage and distribution for locally generated solar and wind power all year long. The profound shift in the electric business is remaking the relationship between power companies and the public. Ever improving, solarpower technology offers huge advantages to consumers and has touched off a race to educate, innovate, and build. The industry is in constant flux, and yet, for the moment, the direction is definite: turn, now, to the sun.
Biddle Duke owns and operates a media company in Vermont. He’s a writer and founding editor of The East Hampton Star’s EAST magazine. He lives in Springs.
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In Amagansett, a net-zero home that produces more energy than it uses during the daytime sending energy back to the grid.
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When the sun’s not shining, grid-tied net-zero houses draw energy back from the grid. Photo courtesy of Green Logic.
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Lightness of Being
By Eliza Callahan For the first installment of our Creators interview series, we spoke with Mamoun Friedrich-Grosvenor, a 21-year-old artist, inventor, and East End native. 12
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Mamoun Friedrich-Grosvenor in his Sagaponack studio. Photo by Tara Israel.
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End: Your work defies traditional categorization. Its status is wavering—you work in realms of art, design, architecture, and ecology. How do you think of your work? How do you see yourself? Mamoun: I guess don’t really think about the boundaries. It’s more like I have an idea of what it is that I want to create, and it usually spans different categorizations and conventions. So my balloon project has an aesthetic aspect, which is important, but it is superseded by its need to function... My next project delves into plants, electrobiology, electrophysiology, and structural engineering. In the end I always hope it looks good, but that’s more something at the end. As far as how I see myself, I don’t know. I don’t really think of myself as artist even though I guess I’m making art. Do you see yourself more an inventor? Yeah, I guess more of an inventor. So the aesthetics follow the function? It varies, but, lately, yes. What came to mind when I looked at your work was the idea of art as both functional object as well as representation of functional object. I would say that the only time I’m interested in representation is if what I’ve made is a model for something I’m going to make in the future. Otherwise I always have something entirely functional in mind. Growing up, as a kid, I would go up to my parents with an idea— they’re both artists, my dad is always building things—and I would be, like, “I want to make this! Let’s make a submarine.” And he would say, “alright!” So we made a wooden box with a plastic bubble on one side. Then I’d be like, “alright, let’s test it out. Let’s put it in the water. Let’s go!” So I think I’ve ultimately always been interested in making something that works. But I would say that most of the stuff I actually make doesn’t work and most of the work ends up being aesthetic objects, a reference for a future idea, but always with the goal of its future being a working thing, like a spaceship.
man-craft balloon in high school, when I was 18, and then that one broke, so I built another one in college which is about 70 feet long, probably about 45 feet in diameter. The way it works is you have energy coming in via solar radiation that is being absorbed by the black material, and then the black material passes that as infrared and so it emits infrared into the interior (and exterior) of the balloon. It floats the way a boat does in water—a less dense thing in a more dense thing.
“. . . most of the stuff I actually make doesn’t work and most of the work ends up being aesthetic objects, a reference for a future idea, but always with the goal of its future being a working thing, like a spaceship.” Did you construct it by hand? Well, it took about 70 hours, and I built it in the gym at my college, but I actually finished it out here at LTV Studios. I was taping each of the thirty-six panels, which are seventy feet in length, with Scotch office tape. It gave me a bit of a back problem, but it worked out. It took a few months. I’m currently trying to build the first-ever geodesic rigid hot-air balloon. I’m trying to make a rigid sphere made of fiberglass beams using the principles of transegrity, which Fuller, I think, coined
Your parents are both artists [Saskia Friedrich and Jeremy Grosvenor]. Do you feel as though there are any aesthetic or conceptual relationships between your work and your mother or father’s work? I would say, yeah, definitely with both of them. With my mom it’s definitely with Color Field and stuff, and with my dad, it has to do with construction, building out of wood. He gave me the feeling that I could make something if I thought of it. Where did your interest and work on the solar balloons begin? I actually started working on solar balloon projects in high school, at Ross School, when I learned about Dominic Michaelis, the man who pioneered solar balloons. But he’s also a pioneer in creating flying cities, similar to Buckminster Fuller’s concept, and Michaelis did the first crossing of the English Channel in a solar aircraft. I made my first
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With one of his floating polyhedrons, influenced by the work of Buckminster Fuller. Photo by Tara Israel.
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Mamoun Friedrich-Grosvenor’s sketchbook and the launch of his solar-powered passive hot-air balloon in Montauk.
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In the studio: a suit and “mushroom hats” he made of mycelium fabric. Photo by Tara Israel.
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and definitely talked about a lot. The craft is supposed to eventually be able to carry plants—the idea is floating gardens. So it will be a plant spaceship. I want to ideally pilot the craft using the electro-activity of the plants. I also wanted to talk to you about your relationship with the work of Buckminster Fuller. You work with geodesic domes, the structural concept that he developed in the 1940s. Fuller also worked with the concept of floating habitats, which you also riff on... Well, what I’m working on now is to try to eventually build the things Fuller had talked about and conceptualized—tensegrity spheres and something similar to his floating cities called Cloud Nine. But what I’d like to create is a passive solar garden. So it would be like an autonomous floating garden unit. You can use steam, like water vapor balloons, to get lift. So if you have a tropical environment inside a large clear zeppelin, you can end up with a permanently floating structure. I mean, it would only float in the daytime—it’s a very ephemeral kind of engineering issue. Have you studied engineering? Are you a self-taught engineer? I definitely haven’t studied engineering. If you have an idea in mind and the internet, you can get by. I studied biology for two years. You grew up on the East End and have pretty much lived here your whole life... I was born out here, lived in Hawaii briefly as a kid. Do you feel as though there are any aspects of the East End that play into your work? Well, I’d say I’m specific to this place because I’m kind of made of it. But I would say not beyond the fact that my atoms are generally from here.
Eliza Callahan is a surfer, artist, writer, and musician who splits her time between Sag Harbor and the West Village. She graduated from Columbia University in May and sings and plays guitar in the New York–based band Purr.
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Houseplants for the Frequent Traveler Words and Photos by Olivia Lerner Keeping houseplants alive can be a pain in the neck, especially if you’re one of those people who hops back and forth between the East End and who-knows-where. Here are some tips that will keep you from coming home to the sight of sadly wilted leaves—as well as some suggestions for specific plants that can withstand the lifestyle of a traveler.
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• Pick plants that prefer less water and will be more tolerant of sporadic watering while you’re away. You might like the colorful blooms on an African violet or miniature rose, but they will only give you grief if you ditch them to go trek Annapurna. • Most houseplants do best in a moderate environment of 60 to 75 degrees, so in the hotter months you will either want to keep on your air conditioner while you are out of town (obviously not the most environmentally friendly option) or move the plants to a part of the house that stays a little cooler, like a basement or pantry. • Don’t leave plants in drafty areas or near air vents; circulating air dries them out. Direct sunlight also makes soil dry more quickly, so if you • expect your favorite spider plant to be left unattended for a stretch, move it away from that plate-glass window. • Grouping plants together helps keep the air around them humid. (This works because they release moisture through a process called transpiration.) In the winter months, you might want to further increase the humidity by placing plant pots on trays filled with pebbles and water.
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Olivia Lerner splits her time between Water Mill, Westhampton, and New York City. A graduate of Cornell with a degree in landscape architecture, Olivia has a boutique plant shop called Bodega Rose.
• Give your plants a little love before you leave, so they are in tip-top shape. Snip off dead leaves, stems, and withered blooms, and clear out any fallen plant matter from the pot. • Before you head out, give your plants enough water for it to drain out of the bottom of their pots.
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1 SAGO PALM Cycas revoluta The sago palm is not actually a palm but a member of the cycad genus, an ancient plant that’s survived since the days of the dinosaurs. You’ll have a hard time killing it, because it can tolerate both very bright and very low-light conditions and prefers dry, sandy soil. (But, beware! If ingested, all parts of the sago palm are toxic to both humans and animals.) 2 SILVER SATIN POTHOS Scindapsus pictus ‘Argyraeus’ This hardy tropical plant with attractively mottled, heart-shaped leaves is among the easiest to grow indoors. It was originally cultivated in Southeast Asia and would rather be given too little water than too much. Keep the soil damp, but do not let it get soggy, and keep it out of drafty spaces.
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3 SNAKE PLANT Sansevieria trifasciata Snake plants might be the most tolerant houseplants broadly available. They can survive weeks of neglect while still looking fresh. They require very little light and water and rarely attract problem insects. Bonus: a NASA study concluded that snake plants increase indoor air quality by removing toxins like formaldehyde and benzene. 4 BIRD’S NEST ANTHURIUM Anthurium plowmanii Originally from the South American rainforest, the bird’s nest anthurium is a plant that thrives on moderation. It doesn’t like high heat, hard freezes, or direct sunlight — in fact, too much of these things can kill it. But it does like humidity. For this reason, it tends to be happy growing in bathrooms.
5 PONYTAIL PALM 6 SUCCULENTS Beaucarnea recurvata A huge group of plants that The ponytail (also not actually come in tons of different colors, a palm) stores water in its short shapes, and sizes, succulents and squat trunk, making it tolerhave been trendy for a few years ant to infrequent watering. It’s a now, possibly because there’s generally forgiving plant that likes something retro-1970s about bright but can tolerate medium both their look and the look of sunlight. With its goofy “hair” the glass containers they’re often and bulbous “body,” the ponytail kept in. They store water in their palm is one of our favorite plants plump, juicy flesh; this makes on the list. them highly drought-resistant, and thus ideal for the neglect they might be subjected to when owned by someone who stays home just long enough to do a load of laundry and repack for the next voyage. They usually like bright—but indirect—sunlight, yet can survive on only a few drops of water.
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Restoring Forward
Spurred on by a recent think-tank evening that called on citizens and designers to imagine ways to “Fix This Town!� the creative minds at MB Architecture came up with a few bold ideas to make the village, once again, a village that actually serves the needs of residents. Here, some specific proposals by the architects: Maziar Behrooz, Bruce Engel, Jeffrey Wong, and Chloe Liang. 20
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A couple of summers ago, we held a discussion at the Parrish Art Museum called “Fix This Town!” After the audience heard from the editor of The East Hampton Star, David Rattray, about widespread inaccuracies in population estimates for the East End, Filipe Correa, an urbanist and professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, fielded questions on urban planning across the globe—and what we here on Long Island can learn from similar, or not so similar, built environments. Correa encouraged the audience to think about a central question: “In what kind of town do you want to live?” So we spent the past two months doing precisely that, envisioning, analyzing, modeling, designing, and drawing—imagining the town, the village, the place we would like to live. We started by recognizing that town planning isn’t working so well for East Hampton Village, because the village itself is incorporated separately from, and governed independently of, the surrounding Town of East Hampton. Town planners cannot address issues specific to the village, and that means they cannot offer a cohesive plan for its future. In a recent “hamlet study” commissioned by the Town of East Hampton (that is, explicitly not the Village), planning consultants working with input from residents and businesspeople suggested a number of interventions in our hamlets from Wainscott to Montauk—touching on housing needs, green space, traffic, and general quality of life conditions—but none of the ideas addressed the state of the village proper, which, not just geographically but in all ways, is really at the heart of East Hampton Town. You might ask, So why doesn’t the village update its own comprehensive plan, which was drafted in 2001? Perhaps it’s because the village boards are wary of experimental changes to building and zoning regulations; and from our perspective, they might be right to be wary. Codes can’t just be reactionary. They often become obsolete by the time they are enacted, and the rules are frequently “gamed” by people with the knowledge, or wealth, to play the system. Community leaders and board members may feel that an embargo on any sort of broad-scale planning is better than haphazard or wrongheaded planning, and that sometimes inaction is the best way to conserve the village’s character. Unfortunately, while a cautious approach does have its benefits for the village—and we think, for example, that a good job has been done in certain areas, from the relative calm that reigns on the village beaches to the well-managed public parking in the business district— it is impossible to stop the changes that steamroll ahead on the East End, and wrongheaded to ignore our present realities. As the popu-
lation increases (in unknown numbers) from year to year, the streets, services, and public spaces that served their purposes well a couple of decades ago now start to fail. Traffic gets heavier, water quality declines, and decent, anywhere-near-affordable housing becomes impossible to find. The hard truth is that the business district in the Village of East Hampton, the heart of our town, years ago ceased to serve the needs of the year-round community. Residents find little of use in the offerings of its designer boutiques, which in many cases serve little purpose beyond marketing for the international company that holds the lease, and in the winter we are confronted with shuttered storefronts empty but for signs that read, “Thanks for the great season, see you next summer.” The weekend and summer populations, for fear of getting caught in traffic snarls and queue quagmires, avoids the village with just as much dread. And so we decided to offer a sort of guerrilla plan for the village, unrestricted by bureaucracy, with the intention of bringing urban planning into the conversation. Our goal is to plant the seed for managed growth, holding in mind a belief that we think all residents and visitors would embrace: revitalizing and reactivating the village, while preserving its unique historical, social, and physical character. Our design challenge was to imagine ways to restore the village’s original walkability, distinctiveness, and variety of uses—it’s “village-ness”—as well as proposing new routes by which people could circulate around and through it. Each of these propositions would represent a practical and feasible enhancement over the existing situation; over time, they would add up to make the built environment more congenial and eclectic. We hope that bringing these ideas to the attention of the public and of community leaders here, as a feature in the inaugural issue of End magazine, will provoke reader responses and fuel an ongoing dialogue that is less conventional and therefore open than the usual planning process (regulate, design, town hall, bid, build). We hope you will enter into this dialogue as if it were a new kind of “public space,” to foster deeper engagement in shaping our shared future.
The ideas expressed in this article are those of MB Architecture and do not represent the editorial opinions of End or The East Hampton Star. Acknowledgments from MB Architecture: “Thank you to our advisors who bear no responsibility for the final design: Bill Chaleff, Felipe Correa, Evan Harris, Jee Won Kim, Bob Rattenni, Tom Ruhle, Carl Skelton, Greg Turpan.”
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Existing Long-Term Parking With Solar Canopies Existing YMCA Elementary School Restaurant/Bar/Cafe Infill Water Treatment Pond Waste Treatment Center Infill Housing
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Half-Overhead, Half-Sunken Parking Museum Middle School Library Commercial Infill Tech Fab Lab Post Office Newtown Windmill
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An aerial view of East Hampton Village, looking south over Main Street, Newtown Lane, and Railroad Avenue.
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“Newtown Center”
Waste Treatment Facility
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CIRCULATION Our proposal is for a walking and biking loop or “necklace” around the village that would reconnect Main Street to North Main Street. This walkway would provide a safe and pleasant walking experience linking various key buildings and shopping areas. The pathway could be expanded over time to reach north into Springs or Northwest Woods. It could be embellished with rest stops and support amenities such as shaded benches, food trucks, rainwater collectors and dispensers, and even water-treatment tanks.
We also suggest that walking distances in and around the village should be given renewed consideration. If the post office, for example, were moved to Newtown Lane, closer to the train station and a future recreation building, it would allow parents to drop off kids and run errands without having to get back in their car. We’d redevelop the area around the train station as another village hub. We envision a multipurpose recreation building in one of the underutilized light-industrial or business lots between the train station and the YMCA RECenter, such as the existing lumber yard. On one side, the new building would have an activities hall (think: bowling, ping pong, rock climbing, slides, and an indoor playground) and, on the other, food services, small shops, and galleries.
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Newtown Center, a new village hub on Railroad Avenue, is given over to community, civic, and recreation activities.
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ENVIRONMENT While issues of water quality are constantly in the news, the village does not currently have a waste-filtration facility. Each private property relies on its own septic tank (typically an old-fashioned concrete ring that holds waste, which slowly seeps into the ground, eventually reaching the aquifer or nearby open water). Seeping sewage has caused an imbalance in nitrogen in bodies of water across the East End, leading to toxic algae blooms. As has been widely reported, these algae blooms have caused Georgica Pond to, on occasion, turn so toxic that a dog was killed after drinking the water.
“living machines” can be integrated into a scenic landscape. In addition to protecting our water, we propose sustainable yearround intensive farming (hydroponics, greenhouses, market gardens) that could be woven into the fabric of the village. Small-scale farming would edge into the village proper, turning lawns into kitchen gardens or market gardens that work for us. In the view on Page 20 and 21, numbers 30 and 31, we show how the farms on Long Lane might extend right into the business district. Think: farm stands and farm-to-table restaurants right at the west end of Newtown Lane.
Our proposal is a “greenhouse” water-treatment building at the corner of Toilsome and Gingerbread Lanes, where there is currently an empty lot; this plant would house bacteria-containing tanks to filter and purify waste water in a process that mimics that of natural wetlands. Unlike their old-school water-treatment brethren, these
We also propose that the unused green space in the middle of the housing block between Muchmore and Pleasant Lanes be rezoned as agricultural, for use by the adjacent homeowners as a shared community farm.
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Septic tanks in East Hampton Village.
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EDUCATION AND CULTURE Within the pedestrian loop and midway between three public schools, we propose a cultural, technological, and education hub for all— children, adults, year rounders, and summer residents. Currently, the East Hampton Library and the East Hampton High School sit at opposite ends of the village, 1.5 miles apart. The library is a destination drive for most residents, but it doesn’t have to be. Our suggestion is the creation of a Culture Triangle on the north side of Newtown Lane that would encompass a new location or expansion for Guild Hall, a new library, and a technology “FabricationLab.” Students from all three public schools would be able to walk to any of these buildings during or after school.
The Culture Triangle on the north side of Newtown Lane.
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The New Guild Hall Middle School Newton Library Tech Fab Lab
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BEHROOZ, ENGEL, WONG & LIANG
HOUSING We see a need for inexpensive low-rise residential housing within walking distance of Main Street. As we all know, the lack of affordable housing— for everyone from teachers, professionals, and volunteer emergency personnel to senior citizens and seasonal staff in the hospitality industries—
is forcing many year-rounders to move away. Meanwhile, this exodus forces the large estates to rely on the traffic snarling “trade parade,” a daily influx of tradespeople (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, landscapers, pool-service people) from points west. We propose the rezoning of certain village blocks to allow for accessory apartments and second floors that, due to their modest size, would be affordable. Property owners could opt to add such structures to their side- or backyards, to derive rental income, or they could split their existing houses for attached legal rentals. A proliferation of granny apartments and coach houses would not just increase the available housing stock but help restore a demographic mix to the village’s population.
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LEARNING FROM SAG HARBOR Who doesn’t like Sag Harbor? Having developed as a small city rather than an agricultural village, Sag Harbor is distinguished by densely clustered, modestly sized houses that huddle close to Main Street (the liveliest main drag out east). We studied and extracted house sizes in some of the most charming parts of Sag Harbor, such as Rector Street, and used them here as models for infill accessory houses between East Hampton’s Muchmore and Pleasant Lanes.
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Main street, Sag Harbor
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Clusters of houses between Muchmore and Pleasant Lanes would take their cue from the intimate neighborhoods of Sag Harbor.
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BEHROOZ, ENGEL, WONG & LIANG
PARK AND PARKING Soon driverless cars will make municipal parking lots—which gobble up so much real estate across America—all but obsolete. Until then, parking lots can be reimagined, and their uses multiplied. In our proposal, highly visible solar canopies would edge the Reutershan Parking Lot and wrap around Herrick Park to provide a covered viewing area. We call it the Tailgate Park: When the kids are having a meet, or during the Artists and Writers softball game, trucks could tailgate and enjoy the game. While the parking area could continue, at least in part, to be used for its old purpose in the high season, during the off-season it would be repurpose-able. The overhead canopies, placed strategically over parking spaces, could double as farmers market stands or pop-up booths for fairs. This would restore a central aspect of our public life, serving as a town square, like the existing one in Amagansett, where people could picnic, hang out, watch open-air concerts, and buy food, as well as watch sporting events. We also propose the improvement and expansion of the playing fields. Today, a large portion of Herrick Park is unused on many days, certainly in summer, even though it is in the center of the village. Herrick Park does not offer support services, food services, or other amenities beyond the public restrooms nearby. And because it is a playing field, no dogs are allowed, which limits its use. Here, we propose an arbor to separate the playing field and the park, so that people and their pets can enjoy it in a broader variety of ways.
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REZONING AND RELOCATING AMICABLY Proposals affecting private property would be tax-incentivized and voluntary. Those homeowners who accepted a cap on accessoryapartment rent, for example, could be offered a tax deduction. For businesses in the path of the proposed new public facilities (such as the recreational facility), transfer of development rights and other tax incentives could be explored. THE HORIZON An incremental approach, taking each improvement as a unique design opportunity in the present, makes this strategy robust over the very long term. Every improvement would make the most of new knowledge and changing conditions, as the state of the surrounding village, town, region, and world evolves. The quality of life of residents of all of East Hampton Town would benefit from an emphasis on small, specific village-improvement projects rather than grand, abstract notions of planning and development.
View of Tailgate Park (currently Herrick Park). Photo by Bruce Engel.
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Village Square Herrick Park
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BEHROOZ, ENGEL, WONG & LIANG
Solar Canopies
Chess Bench
Tailgate Park
Reutershan Town Square
Newton Center
People Park
The New Guild Hall Technology Fab Lab
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Post Office
Drugstore
Infill Houses
Nature-Based Waste Teatment
Food Truck / Water Collector
Art Stop Farming & Farmhouses
Walking Loop Waste Collection Loop
The Necklace: a loop connects community buildings around the village.
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East End
Design Awards
Welcome to the first annual East End Design Awards “The intensity of the design process here and the sophistication of so many of the clients who commission new houses make the Hamptons something of a laboratory of design solutions,” Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize– winning architecture critic for The New York Times, once wrote. “If this is not a place of the avant-garde, it is surely a place in which current architectural thinking is always visible, a place in which the temper of the time can be measured.” While the winning projects in this year’s inaugural awards program are diverse in style, there is a cohesion that binds the group. These projects from the last five years offer a snapshot into a greater design conversation. Thematically, they highlight a respect for the landscape and the raw materials out of which they were built. And they effectively utilize the unusual and soft aspect of natural light that has been so remarked on here on the East End. The East End Design Awards received 70 submissions in 13 categories from 30 design firms. Each was judged by a fully independent* panel of top design professionals. All three of the judging firms have won a National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (recognition that, in the design world, has all the prestige of the Oscars). —Levi Shaw-Faber 36
Judges
Deborah Berke Partners
1
Deborah Berke Partners is an award-winning architecture firm based in Manhattan lead by Berke, who is the dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Among the company’s most significant works are the Rockefeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia, the interiors for the western hemisphere’s tallest residential tower, at 432 Park Avenue in New York City, the Yale School of Art, and numerous houses across the East End and beyond. Maitland Jones AIA, a partner at Deborah Berke, represented it in the judging.
Roman and Williams
2
Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors is the New York–based interiors firm that is perhaps best known for designing iconic hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs. These include the Standard Highline Hotel, the Ace Hotels in New York and New Orleans, the Viceroy Hotel, Le Coucou (voted best restaurant of 2016 by The New York Times), Gilded Lily, and the Boom Boom Room. Roman and Williams’s founders, Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, represented it in judging the East End Design Awards.
Coen+Partners
3
Coen+Partners is a renowned landscape-architecture practice based in Minneapolis. It has created landscapes for universities, city parks, public libraries, land ports (that is, international border gateways), and private residences, including several on the East End. Anne Raver, an architecture critic for The New York Times, described Coen+Partners’ work as having “pushed Midwestern boundaries.” Coen+Partners’ CEO Shane Coen FASLA, Robin Ganser ASLA, a principal at the firm, and Britton Jones ASLA, a project manager represented Coen+Partners in the judging.
*The editors of End did not have input on the judging.
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NEW HOUSE UNDER 2,999 SQ FT Resolution: 4 Architecture
FINA
LIST
NORTH FORK BAY HOUSE Laurel, 2014 With sea-level rise in mind, the architect set prefabricated modules on a site-built steel frame. “While the house is not technically within a FEMA-designated flood zone, the strategy of lifting the house is a direct response to the client’s concerns about potential flooding in the future. Simultaneously, this strategy provides outstanding views of the bay from the main level, while creating shaded and sheltered outdoor space below the house for parking, lounging, and woodworking—including the grandfather’s latest project, building a small sailboat.”
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Photos by Resolution: 4 Architecture
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NEW HOUSE UNDER 2,999 SQ FT Young Projects
WESTHAMPTON BUNGALOW Westhampton, 2015 For this small house in Westhampton, the architect said, the “overhead geometry becomes more pronounced as it moves away from the entry; as the roof lifts up toward the patio and pool court, it serves to both orient the space and link interior with exterior. The fluctuating roof line is visually offset by shifting grade that rolls up against the monolithic concrete plinth that raises the house above the flood zone.�
40
WIN
NER
Photos by Costas Picadas
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NEW HOUSE 3,000–4,999 SQ FT Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects
FINA
LIST
HOUSE ON THE POINT Water Mill, 2016 “Working with the constraints of a small footprint, every moment and view counts,” wrote the architect. “The open-plan, transparent first floor connects ocean and bay views. A more private second floor prioritizes oceanfront indoor-outdoor living and a strategically-placed hot tub from which to enjoy bayfront sunsets.”
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Photos by Matthew Carbone
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NEW HOUSE 3,000–4,999 SQ FT Bates Masi + Architects
PROMISED LAND Amagansett, 2015 The client, according to the architect, has “a passion for being on the water where their interests are dependent on the wind. Thus the program is organized about an east–west axis that aligns with the prevailing wind and divides the public and private wings. This axis extends through the entire site, carving a narrow clearing through the forest that channels the wind towards the house... Between the two wings, a reflecting pool acts as a barometer for displaying the status of the wind. Light bounces off the rippled surface of the water and projects the character of the wind onto the ceilings of adjacent spaces.”
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WIN
NER
Photos by Bates Masi + Architects
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NEW HOUSE OVER 5,000 SQ FT CCS Architecture, Mode Interior Designs
FINA
LIST
WATERMILL RESIDENCE Watermill, 2014 The house was designed to serve as a foundation “for layers of raw and organic elements such as clay, aged wood, dark steel, distressed leather, and textured stone. The exterior of the house has a rustic simplicity of a ‘modern farmhouse,’ mimicking the barns common to agricultural Long Island, with simple geometric forms grounded in the landscape, natural wood siding, and metal roofs.”
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Photos by Colin Miller
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NEW HOUSE OVER 5,000 SQ FT Office of Architecture
WATERMILL HOUSE Watermill, 2016 Because the property is located in a Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain, with approximately 50 percent unbuildable wetlands, the architect was concerned that it “wouldn’t deliver the square footage or the living spaces required to create a ‘Hamptons Home.’ Rather than fight the constraints imposed by the land, we saw this as an opportunity to capture a variety of spaces that could exist under, over, and between the building and the landscape.”
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WIN
NER
Photos by Rafael Gamo
49
LANDSCAPE OR GARDEN Nievera Williams Design
FINA
LIST
WICKAPOGUE GARDENS Southampton, 2017 “New outdoor terraces and an outdoor kitchen were devised” for this Southampton home, “as well as a lavender garden viewed from a screened porch. There is a new lawn to the east, which features an old English telephone booth from the client’s two-year residency in Great Britain. New landscape steps lead from the house to the pool. Tennis courts were integrated into the topography, and a new circular parking court was added to the front of the property.”
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Photos by Michael Stavaridis
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LANDSCAPE OR GARDEN LaGuardia Design Group
MECOX RESIDENCE Water Mill, 2015 “The back of the residence, which was originally an abandoned lawn, was revitalized as a native-magnolia walk,” said the landscape architect of this herbicide-, pesticide-, and fertilizer-free space near Mecox Bay. “Native sweetbay magnolia trees dance through a bed of carex grasses and low spreading hay-scented ferns. A winding gravel walkway leads guests through the trees and out to the pool area.”
52
WIN
NER
Photos by Eric Striffler
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GREEN INTERVENTION Montauk Design Collective
FINA
LIST
FORT POND HOUSE Montauk, 2016 This extensive renovation on Fort Pond ‘incorporates the latest in green and sustainable design principles to create a home with net zero energy use: “geothermal heating, cellulose insulation, concrete and reclaimed wood floors and beams with radiant heating, and solar panels. Recycled building materials, nontoxic finishes, and natural fibers drove the design.”
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Photos by Dalton Portella
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GREEN INTERVENTION SchappacherWhite Architecture
BIRDHOUSE Shelter Island, 2016 Rhea White and Steve Schappacher made this birdhouse as a donation to a fund-raising campaign for the Peconic Land Trust. It was constructed out of recycled materials left over from one of their human-scaled projects. “Occupants have two bedrooms/ nesting areas on the upper level, a fireplace/ seed feeder, a swimming pool/bird bath, a succulent green roof, and a lower level guest house for all of their summer friends.�
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WIN
NER
Photos by Jason Penney
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OUTDOOR LIVING SPACE LaGuardia Design Group
SOUNDVIEW RESIDENCE Montauk, 2015 The glass cabana and wood arbor built on a Montauk ocean bluff were “designed with the goal of creating a modern counterpoint to the traditional house, while offering a variety of outdoor seating areas, including dining, an outdoor TV lounge, and kitchen.”
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WIN
NER
Photos by Anthony Crisafulli
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SWIMMING POOL LaGuardia Design Group
FINA
LIST
SAGAPONACK RESIDENCE Sagaponack, 2013 “The swimming pool’s edgeless design allows for a continuous transition from stone to water, while creating a deeply reflective surface.”
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Photos by Antoine Bootz
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SWIMMING POOL LaGuardia Design Group
DEERFIELD RESIDENCE Watermill, 2012 The aim was to connect the residence and pool “via an elegant stair of stone and sod that fits into an architectural slope of grass that compliments the house and keeps the pool close to existing grade. The pool area is aligned on axis with the strong gable end of the house to create a visual connection that extends the architecture into the landscape.�
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WIN
NER
Photos by Anthony Crisafulli
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ART SPACE IN A RESIDENCE LaGuardia Design Group & Gluckman Tang Architects
FINA
LIST
DE MARIA GARDEN AND PAVILION Bridgehampton, 2016 The clients, who are avid art collectors, asked LaGuardia and Gluckman Tang to design an outdoor space and a private gallery to frame a collection of pencil drawings and sculptures by Walter De Maria, including the recently acquired Large Grey Sphere, which weighs 32 tons and stands nine feet tall. The result was a 1,600-squarefoot, brick-and-concrete pavilion set inside a brick-walled rose garden that had fallen into disuse.
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Photos by Nikolas Koenig
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ART SPACE IN A RESIDENCE Andrew Berman Architect
WIN
NER
NORTH FORK PAINTING STUDIO Mattituck, 2015 A windowless 800-square-foot garage was transformed into a “day-lit and generously scaled painting studio.” As the firm noted in its submission, “color is provided by the landscape, the shifting character of the light through the days and seasons, and by the artwork itself.”
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Photos by Naho Kubota
RESIDENTIAL BATHROOM Tamara Magel Studio
FINA
LIST
HEDGES LANE PROJECT Sagaponack, 2017 An interior designer based in Sag Harbor, Magel’s aim with this project was “to reflect the sophisticated elegance” of Sagaponack. “We achieved this look by mixing black into our color scheme with woods and statuary marble slabs to create a space that’s both chic and cozy.”
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Photos by Rikki Snyder
69
RESIDENTIAL BATHROOM Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects
WIN
NER
SEASCAPE BATHROOM Sagaponack, 2016 “This Sagaponack bathing room has 180-degree—if not greater—views of farm fields, a pond, and the ocean beyond,” wrote the architects in their submission. “The indoor shower opens up directly to the outside deck, turning it into a shower on the porch.”
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Photos by Matthew Carbone
RESIDENTIAL KITCHEN Architecture in Formation
FINA
LIST
WEST POND HOUSE Bridgehampton, 2015 “Well-appointed for preparing and serving a family meal, dinner party, or large catered event, the kitchen and breakfast area is the unrivaled center of this Bridgehampton home; graciously scaled, it connects all the main interior and exterior living spaces.�
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Photos by Michelle Rose
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RESIDENTIAL KITCHEN Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects
WIN
NER
OCEAN DUNE HOUSE* Bridgehampton, 2014 This ocean-view outdoor kitchen is “not only intended for entertaining,” said the architect, “but for producing serious food by the chef owner...The concrete enclosure for the oven is made large enough to house a fireplace for the mini-lounge on the opposite side. A large, cast-in-place concrete counter contains all the amenities needed to support outdoor cooking, with appliances and storage cabinet specifically geared for the outdoors.” *This project is also the finalist in the Outdoor Living Space category.
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Photos by Matthew Carbone
RESIDENTIAL LIVING ROOM Architecture in Formation
FINA
LIST
WEST POND HOUSE Bridgehampton, 2015 This Bridgehampton living room has “a darker overall tone than the classic Hamptons interior” with “luxurious textures and pops of pink and playful patterns [to] make sure a primary living space is still a showpiece for those occasions when winter guests are welcomed to warm up by the fire. The dining room, dark and moody and the height of glamour, is the center of every dinner party.”
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Photos by Michelle Rose
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RESIDENTIAL LIVING ROOM Desai Chia Architecture
WATER MILL HOUSE Water Mill, 2015 “We expanded a traditional cottage home by marrying a new addition with a renovation project: The living area, dining area, and kitchen were moved from the old cottage into the new addition in order to reorient the living room to the garden, an existing swimming pool, and the bucolic views of a neighboring farm, while reinforcing relationships between outdoor activities and indoor entertaining areas.�
78
WIN
NER
Photos by Paul Warchol
79
NONRESIDENTIAL PROJECT Joseph T. Deppe Architect
FINA
LIST
PRIVATE SQUASH COURT Wainscott, 2015 This squash court’s “true function and modern detailing only become apparent when viewed from the adjoining residence and backyard. It houses a single squash court for a family of avid players along with an upper viewing lounge area [and] a lower exercise area with lockers and bathroom.”
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Photos by Jeff Heatley
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NONRESIDENTIAL PROJECT Bates Masi + Architects
NORTH MAIN East Hampton, 2016 The architects’ brief? To design a building to house their own offices. “Based on vernacular building traditions, simple forms and naturally weather-resistant materials are employed. By simplifying the structure’s configuration, minimizing building technologies, and facilitating future adaptation, the project attains ‘timelessness’: it will outlast its contemporaries and extend our natural resources.”
82
WIN
NER
Photos by Michael Moran/OTTO
83
UNBUILT PROJECT Stuart Basseches Architect
MONTAUK HOUSE Montauk, 2016 This large, unbuilt house is situated in the Hither Hills dunes. “Enter at ground level through an open courtyard from the north. Stairs lead up to the entry deck with views to the ocean through the open kitchen/living room. A glass circulation hall overlooks the courtyard, flanked by four bedrooms on the west and east, and an open deck facing north over the dunes. The ground level contains parking, gathering spaces, storage, and utilities.�
84
FINA
LIST
Renderings by Stuart Basseches Architect
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UNBUILT PROJECT Maziar Behrooz Architecture
DRIFTWOOD HOUSE East Hampton, 2016 In the architect’s words, “It is an arresting experience to exit the tree-covered road and be confronted with an expansive cut of the sky, the bay, and a horizon line that is straddled with Gardiner’s Island. On the east and west sides, neighboring houses sit not too far away. These two extremes, complete openness on one axis and enclosure on the other, inform our design and its materiality.”
86
WIN
NER
Renderings by Maziar Behrooz Architecture
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Find out more at pluspool.org
Pledge your support at swimintheriver.com
5 Quadrant Hill Road, East Hampton $2,950,000
6 Bed
5.5 Bath
4,200 SF
The Midlam Team 631.235.8545 midlamteam@compass.com
Experience the ultimate in sustainable luxury. Approved by Mother Nature. Experience the ultimate in sustainable luxury in this brand new 4,200 +/- sq. ft. modern residence. Currently under construction with an expected completion date in the Fall of 2017. Conceptualized and brought to life by ModernNetZero, this cutting edge home is a seamless blend of sleek architecture, warm interiors, modern finishes and conscious living. The energy you create is equal to the energy you consume. The only evidence of your time spent at this one-of-akind home will be the wonderful memories you create. Approved by Mother Nature.
compass.com | 631.324.1700 Bryan Midlam, Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker. Real estate agents affiliated with Compass are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Compass. Equal Housing Opportunity. Compass is a licensed real estate broker located at 90 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Fl. NY, NY 10011. All information furnished regarding property for sale or rent or regarding financing is from sources deemed reliable, but Compass makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy thereof. All property information is presented subject to errors, omissions, price changes, changed property conditions, and withdrawal of the property from the market, without notice. To reach the Compass main office call 212 913 9058
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