Gwathmey Residence

Designed in 1965 and completed in 1967 by 27-year-old Charles Gwathmey (then unlicensed) for his parents — the painter Robert Gwathmey and the photographer Rosalie Gwathmey — in Amagansett, Long Island, the Gwathmey Residence and Studio is a seminal work of modernist architecture. Built on a $35,000 budget, it reflects Gwathmey’s philosophy of reductionist, abstract design inspired by Le Corbusier’s Cité Henri Frugès and Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic principles.

The 1,200 sq ft main house features a vertical organization of three levels: a ground-floor 'base' with workrooms and guestrooms, a second-floor public living/dining area, and a third-floor private master bedroom/studio with a balcony overlooking a double-height living space. This layout prioritized solar orientation and views of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1967, a 480 sq ft angular addition was constructed at a 45-degree angle to the original structure, housing a guest room and studio. The addition’s precarious, 'movable' appearance contrasts with the anchored main building, creating dynamic spatial tension.

The design employs primitive geometric forms—cubes and cylinders—carved from a solid mass, clad in cedar siding with windows framed in red, yellow, or black. Materials like glass and wood interpenetrate to define functional voids, while a bright yellow steel beam intersects a red mullion on the facade.

Gwathmey later renovated the residence in 2002, replacing concrete floors with white marble and adding windows to preserve its modernist elegance. It became his weekend home until his death in 2009. Critic Kenneth Frampton hailed it as 'more convincing than anything else in the Hamptons,' and it remains a landmark of modernist residential architecture.