All that space and that kitchen would fit in a closet.
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Ha. The Rule of Two. I’ll have two of everything.
Interior architecture is a specialist field where Stern has nothing to say. Exterior ok.
Not everything done by famous architects are worth keeping. This is UGLY and it will be up to the next owner to decide if should live on. If this was one of Mr Stern's normal shingle style homes there would be no debate on it lasting merits. Those are magnificent, as they channel the grace and beauty of an era of special homes.
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This home is a dated daydream of an architect and his clients who had more power and money than they had perspective and wisdom. It's a trophy home and portfolio piece full of ideas but no intimacy. There's no sense of place, history, ecology or any other grounding impulse. It's all neocortex, no amygdala—no heart, no spine, no guts or gonads. I have to wonder if its makers ever suffered enough to feel the ground beneath their feet.
AND it's still better than what most developers pawn off on the public—such is the state of discourse about our built environment. Most people can't tell the difference between architecture and the vanities of real estate.
The Times should consider a series of articles about good buildings, how they came about, how they affect the lives of their occupants and surrounding communities, and why such projects are so rare. That would interest a number of people.
However, this article, and this home, are irrelevant to the vast majority of NYT readers, let alone the general public. One wonders how this subject out-competes so many urgent others for space in these pages.
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It looks so dated.... and cold. That’s the problem w many modern homes—they don’t stay “modern” long and so many never look/feel lived in.
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I always have found Stern's designs lacking......and have never stood the test of time, unlike Wright and Mies.
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Sadly, an early learning curve RM Stern, not one of his best efforts. The rooms are weirdly disorganized looking, the fenestration and ceiling heights all over the place, a visual jumble. I'd tear it down and commission a new house by him.
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@Stop Caging Children If you're so unhappy with this one, why give Stern another commission?
Thank you for sharing the intimate details and pictures of the beautiful house both inside and out. I wish you many happy healthy years to enjoy it. You have saved my life today as a I sit here crying because I miss NY so much. Seeing any part of the Hamptons or Montauk soothes my soul from here in Nevada. The living here is wonderful however, I am terribly homesick these past 7 months that I have lived here. I would leave here in two minutes flat to live in a house like that. Ocean, water, salt, simplicity. My kind of life. Thank you for buying it and restoring it. I wish you had some of those rainbow colored sculptures to brighten it even more but clearly you have made the very best of that gorgeous property. Do you need a caretaker. Full time. Live in. I am available.
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Such a beautiful property - I honestly don't think the pictures in this article do it justice.
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Hmm. Not feeling the love. Take a look at the master bedroom. Fireplace isn't visible from bed. Take a look at the lack of lighting (recessed or otherwise). Take a look at the weeds in the driveway, the boring entrance to the house. Take a look at the carpet in the house. We see these houses on Nantucket all the time. Realtors, contractors and sub-contractors are laughing all the way to the bank here on ACK. Looks like they're laughing down there, too.
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It takes a special kind of chutzpah for an architect to refuse to put in a studio for a house commissioned by a sculptor.
It'd be like an architect refusing to put in a kitchen for a house commissioned by a chef.
Starchitect sensibilities over client needs. The price the starchitect pays is to see the client tack on a DIY studio anyway designed by someone else.
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I’d be happy to fill the role of guest, it looks gorgeous!
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@Paul DesOrmeaux
Me too. Gorgeous. Perfect. How could anyone have anything bad to say.
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@This just in I envy so. I'd love to saunter around the grounds forever. Can't afford it on my own. Perhaps you other admiring commentators might co-lease it for a bit, as a share house for appreciative connoisseurs? Just until the big sale, of course. Enough space to scarcely know the others are there. Meticulous tenants surely would be better for keeping it ship-shape than complete vacancy.
I am totally respectful of the history of the property, as well as the pedigree of architecture. And I am a huge fan of MCM. That having been said... My mother always said, if you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit next to me. Let’s leave it at that.
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