Looking to build on the coastline of New York’s Long Island, a mariner—who previously enjoyed summers living on his boat—found a piece of waterfront property in East Hampton with exquisite sunsets. He enlisted the help of local firm Bates Masi + Architects to design his dream home, this time on land.
The challenge was the site itself. To maximize water frontage to the greatest number of inhabitants, the town split the lots into small slivers 10 times deeper than their width. Plus, mandatory shoreline setbacks and zoning laws with height requirements created multiple design hurdles for the team.
“Being on the water, you want to have all your rooms facing toward the view. This is so narrow that it's just not the case,” explains Paul Masi, founder and principal at the firm. “You have to create this hierarchy of spaces and sort of sequence of experiences, and then it reveals itself to the water.”
With these considerations in mind, Three Mile Harbor’s floor plan is intentionally the widest closer to the coast and tapers inward toward the driveway, detached garage, and pool.
“It created this forced perspective out toward the view, which was really nice,” notes Masi.
On the ground level, an L-shaped main living space sits closest to the exterior deck, while two bedrooms with en suite baths fill the thinner area. Because the secondary bedroom windows would look on to neighboring yards, they are each equipped with individual courtyards. In addition to bringing in sunlight, these courts extend interior space outside with spa-like amenities in the form of outdoor showers.
Upstairs, the owner’s suite cantilevers out toward the water views, with one more additional bedroom on the opposite end. A focal spiral stair connects all three stories.
“[The staircase] sort of strings those narrow volumes together, and it worked well because it was a very small footprint,” says Masi. “There's a kind of seductive form to it. It really became this beautiful feature.”
To further protect resident privacy from its close neighbors, an arrangement of privacy walls were designed for the home’s sides. These walls extend above and beyond the volumes and are clad in tiers of copper piping with flattened ends to resemble oars. Each vertical pipe telescopes, providing variable lengths to precisely follow the sloping topography.
“It's this very simple, rectangular, and small-scale form that you're greeted with,” says Masi. “I like the sort of subtlety on the entrance, because when you get into it, people say ‘oh wow,’ and there's so much more.”
Project Details
Award: Project of the Year
Category: Custom Home: 5,000 Square Feet or Less
Architect: Bates Masi + Architects
Builder: Ben Krupinski Builder
Location: East Hampton, New York
Size: 2,455 square feet
