Long before he became the king of blockbuster Manhattan apartment buildings, Robert A.M. Stern designed this Hamptons postmodern vacation house just a few years out of architecture school. But unlike units in his regal Manhattan towers, this unorthodox take on the shingle-style home hasn't enjoyed nearly as much popularity. The three-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot home has been on and off the market for the last seven years, with the asking price fluctuating $2M to $3M range. The home was recently relisted at $2.95M with much better photographs—will that do the trick?
"This first house by a beginning architect, reflecting the Philadelphia School approach to architecture, especially that of his mentor, Robert Venturi, will be one of the most dramatic and 'far out' statements of the latest thinking in architecture," wrote Philip Johnson in the "40 Under 40" exhibition catalog the home once appeared in. A 1969 item in Progressive Architecture argues that the home takes the "cardboard aesthetic" of Venturi's Vanna Venturi House "several steps further by emphasizing the two-dimensional quality of the facade and overstating its scale in proportion to the relatively modest vacation house that hides behind it."
Stern designed the interior to have "as many alternatives of size, shape, vista, and space as is possible in a small house." This, in part, translates into various horizontal and vertical bridges that allow "mini-glimpses" from one room to another, which Stern argues gives the individually contained rooms "spatial continuity." Anyway, the home, which has been updated by current owners, also offers much bigger (ocean) views, courtesy of its private terraces and expansive roof deck.
· Postmodern in Montauk [Sotheby's]
· Tour a Modern Montauk Beach House [Arch Digest]
· Tour the Home Robert A.M. Stern Helped His Son Renovate [Curbed National]
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