The Hamptons has been the setting for many outstanding works of architecture over the past 125 years: buildings by Mead, McKim and White, through Norman Jaffe, to Herzog & de Meuron. Here, we map some of the greatest designs by the biggest names in architecture.
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Mapping World-Class Architecture in the Hamptons

Andrew Geller
The 1959 Pearlroth House is only 600 square feet. The form is of two boxes rotated 45 degrees into two diamond shapes. The diamonds contain three rooms and a bathroom, while between them is a living space enclosed by glass. Last year, the house was moved back from the dunes and it will be turned into a museum.
Grosvenor Atterbury
Now being restored and expanded into the new Southampton Center, the former Parrish Art Museum was originally built in 1897. In 1913, Atterbury added a new wing with a Renaissance-inspired arched loggia, flanked by gates to the gardens.
Herzog & de Meuron
Completed in 2012, the new Parrish Art Museum resembles a gigantic barn with poured concrete walls. Architects Herzog & de Meuron stated that “The starting point for the new Parrish Art Museum is the artist’s studio in the East End of Long Island. We set the basic parameters for a single gallery space by distilling the studio’s proportions and adopting its simple house section with north-facing skylights.” The building is said to be situated to capture the Hamptons light.
Stelle Architects
The Watermill Center is a world renowned interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts started by artistic director Robert Wilson. Completed in 2006, the campus boasts this building by local architect Fred Stelle.
Peter Blake
Designed by Peter Blake in 1954, the house got its name because it looks like a pinwheel from above. Blake said: "I wanted to be able to open the walls up to the views but close them in winter or during a hurricane,'' he said. ''That was the origin of the pinwheel idea." The house design was obviously a variation on a Mies van der Rohe glass pavilion, blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor space.
Roger Ferris + Partners
The additions to the 1842 Greek Revival main house for the new Topping Rose House hotel, completed 2013, were never going to be copies. Instead, the modern additions are referential to the original and complement it. The horizontal slats that punctuate the façade, made of cement but colored to allude to weathered wood, veil the glass walls of the new building and also act as privacy screens.
Philip Johnson
The oceanfront Sagaponack house, designed by Philip Johnson in 1946, sold last year for $24M. Now the owners want the house either demolished or moved; as of June 2014, several individuals are interested in moving this iconic house.
Blaze Makoid Architecture
Completed in 2013, this house is sited on a narrow, one acre, oceanfront lot. The design was inspired by both the 1979 Tarlo “Wall” House by Tod Williams and Norman Jaffe’s Perlbinder House, completed in 1970. The two story travertine entry façade is highlighted with a single opening accentuated by a cantilevered afromosia stair landing that hovers off the ground. A “cut and fold” in the wall plane bends to allow for one large glass opening, from which an overscaled, wood aperture containing the main stair landing cantilevers.
Shirgeru Ban Architects
Another one of the Houses at Sagaponac is this simple, elegant structure, completed in 2006. It utilizes standard prefabricated cabinetry as the structural system of the house.
Tsao & McKown Architects
Completed in 2007, this addition to the Coco Brown/Richard Meier project Houses at Sagaponac is a study in topography, as the house's design changed a flat landscape into something much more interesting.
Tod Williams & Billie Tsien
Completed in 1998, this house in Georgica Pond is elegantly minimal, with a series of pavilions placed around a courtyard, with floor to ceiling windows for waterviews.
Albro & Lindeberg
Architect Harrie T. Lindeberg designed Coxwould for New York surgeon John E. Erdman in the English country style. Completed in 1912, the house has stucco walls and used to have a roof of small hand-split shingles to resemble a straw thatched roof.
Michael Haverland
This 2004 house, modeled on the 1932 Maison de Verre by Pierre Chareau, is a mix of old and new, timeless yet modern. The architect said, “The idea behind it was to create a simple glass box for the furniture.”
Norman Jaffe
Completed in 1987, Gates of the Grove is the sanctuary of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons. Norman Jaffe references the original synagogue building, Shingle Style architecture, and Kabbalistic symbolism in the space. Plenty of natural light creates a religious building that is both modern and contemplative.
Richard Meier
The Saltzman House, completed in 1969, was designed as a “counterpoint to nature.” It looks like a ship floating across the lawn, and back in the day, was considered a “fusion of architecture and fashion.”
Leroy Street Studio
The House at Further Lane is a family compound set on 12 acres. Completed in 2005, the houses offer a public gallery space, water feature walkways and lots and lots of windows.
Bates Masi Architects
Completed in 2009, Quail Hill's form is reminiscent of traditional East End buildings, but get a little closer and you see that common materials have been repurposed in various ways. The shingles are actually a woven screen of oak surveyor's stakes and the massive chimney isn't solid at all, but is actually made of thin concrete panels. The wall enclosing the staircase looks like translucent stone but is actually a double paned glass wall filled with shells.
Charles Gwathmey
Gwathmey built a number of large houses on the East End, but this small gem, for his parents, designed when he was only 27 in 1965, catapulted him to fame. Architecture critic Kenneth Frampton described it as "more convincing than anything else in the Hamptons."
McKim, Mead & White
In 1883, McKim, Mead & White designed a group of houses known as the Montauk Association. They are important examples of the Shingle Style, a distinctive American architecture. These are restrained modest vacation houses, a cohesive group where each house is distinct but where none stood out as being more important than its neighbor.
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