Once home to some of Montauk, New York’s earliest cattle ranchers, Signal Hill’s clients sought to maintain the appearance of their site’s pastoral landscape while creating a larger house that suits the needs of a family of five.
Project designer Bates Masi + Architects addressed this request twofold by developing a unique two-story floor plan that embeds into the hillside and alludes to traditional agriculture forms.
The house structure references livestock pens built from glacial rubble. Its stone walls extend to the top of the first floor, organizing spaces and providing a base for the second story.
Perched on top of the stone walls sit two simple, shingled cottages reminiscent of the property’s original structures. Because the first floor is largely concealed, they appear as small houses lightly set on the hill when viewed from the road.
Accessed by independent staircases, separated by a large roof deck, and rotated with respect to one another, their arrangement optimizes views for the bedrooms. The northern volume aligns east-west with the children’s rooms overlooking the lake and sound, while the southern volume aligns north-south, offering the master bedroom sweeping panoramas of the nature preserves, ocean, and lake.
Project Details
Award: Merit
Category: Custom Home: More Than 5,000 Square Feet
Architect: Bates Masi + Architects
Builder: Merit Builders
Location: Montauk, New York
Size: 6,325 square feet
