A Horace Gifford Fire Island Gem is Going Up for Auction on June 20

If you don't know the work of Horace Gifford, grandfather of the low-tech, glass-and-wood modernist design movement in New York's Fire Island Pines and mastermind behind fabulous residential works like this and this, we have a primer for that. And you'll need to read up if you want to be a well-informed steward to this little Gifford-designed gem of a home being auctioned off on Sunday, June 20. Designed by the trailblazing architect in the 1960s, the house was ravaged by fire in 1989, when the owners, Rona and Joe Forstadt, coaxed Gifford out of retirement to work his craft one more time and bring the property back to life.

And it's a real beaut of a final career note for Gifford. The 1,920-square-foot house has a boxy, quadruple-barrel-vaulted form that is wrapped in vertical slats of wood, its rear facade marked by four arched portals facing the sea (mirroring the haute Hobbiton barrel vaulting inside) and a quirky, symmetrical entry facade. The interior styling is a little grandma-goes-to-the-beach, but the potential is limitless.

∙ Fire Island Oceanfront Residence [Platinum Luxury Auctions]
∙ Creating the 'Beach Modernism' of Fire Island's Famous Pines [Curbed]