Architect John Fry, principal and co-founder of Nexus Creative Design, has more than 40 years under his belt designing commercial and residential structures, earning leadership roles and accolades for architecture, green building and even civic municipal planning. So, when a project to build a summer house in Montauk came across his desk, he was ready to take on the architecturally challenging lot to design a modern summer house with broad appeal.
Although not an industry peer, the client was an architectural school graduate himself with some very specific needs: The property had a small summer cottage on it and was one of the last lots in the neighborhood to be transformed into a high-end luxury home with water views. It was being developed on speculation. “It was the last one to join the party,” says Fry. The challenge was, the home had to stay within certain site parameters in order to minimize impact on the environment and the neighbors, while providing enough elevation to give the future homeowners water views over the trees and other homes that stood between the house and the shore. Think of zoning like an invisible dome of possibility, explains Fry. The home had to fit within that dome. All the while, it had to be eco-friendly, sustainable and meet local building codes. “You can imagine, in Montauk, the sensitivity and the attention to zoning with primarily building height,” says Fry. “There was a lot of science that had to be applied to make the house compliant while harnessing or maximizing every inch of view you could possibly squeeze.”
The result is a modern, two-story beach house with in-ground pool and patio, strategically designed with indoor/outdoor flow, entertaining spaces, private escapes, and views of the Atlantic. To help achieve all these things, Fry and Jacyln Tyler, principal and co-founder of Nexus Creative Design with 25 years of architectural experience, created a layout with upside-down floor plan, which put primary living areas (living room, kitchen, dining space) on the second floor in order to capture the most water views. You enter into a casual lounge space with a wet bar and television. Four secondary bedrooms are on the first floor. The entire back of the house is a wall of windows looking out to the pool and beyond. Up the open staircase, is the main living room, dining area, spacious kitchen with a large island and waterfall quartzite countertops. Two private bedroom suites on either side of the house offer lots of privacy, one with its own media den and private deck. Tyler says that space is an escape zone where guests or the primary homeowner can “be in your own world.” Since the property is meant to be a vacation home, they designed the layout to create multiple opportunities for escape, including the rooftop terrace with an eco-friendly green roof—the best water views in the house (dolphin and whales sightings included!). Every inch of the home is designed to relax shoulders and create a sense of calm—even the materials chosen for the siding. “There were three primary choices of material on the exterior: stone, metal and the dominant horizontal cedar shiplap, and all of them, even the screening, resonate with the horizontal gesture of the house,” says Tyler.
Designing the street-side exterior was the most challenging. While the profile of the house is not taller than others on the street, the positioning on the grounds and the modern rectangular design gives it an appearance of being larger, so Fry and his team softened the design by mixing materials. The piece de resistance: two unique zinc-coated metal panels that allow light and air to filter through the windows behind them while providing privacy and softening the aesthetic of the front of the house. “That zinc-coated metal finish is very interesting,” says Fry. “It has a depth to it, it has a patina to it, that’s already starting to evolve. It’s not like copper that changes drastically, even though it’s very lovely in its own way. This is a very subtle but sophisticated patina.”
Sophistication is a thread carried throughout the home’s design. Interiors are simple with high-quality finishes and luxurious details. White oak wide plank floors and bright white walls throughout provide continuity and don’t distract from the main stage: walls of windows with views of the water in nearly every room. “It’s a very obvious, simple palette of interior materials,” says Tyler. “It’s all about what’s going on outside.”
Decking on every floor allows homeowners and guests to get outside. The second story deck overhangs the lower-level patio and pool just enough as to provide shade and protection from summer sun and rain while also letting in as much sunlight as possible during Montauk’s harsh winters—all the while never obstructing a view. “It was carefully proportioned says Fry, who noted the current homeowners do not use the home year-round but it was designed to be used that way because many Hamptons and Montauk residents have increasingly fluid lifestyles. “With more remote work, more people are out here full time,” adds Fry.
Despite the challenges, Fry says, this project in particular was a lot of fun, because the client had a deep knowledge of architecture and design. “Most of our clients are not looking at the bolt patterns, they’re not looking at how the stair is interacting with the glass next to it, and we got to have those conversations literally every meeting,” he adds. Every design decision was really about “what’s going on outside,” says Fry, from the shape of the home, to the depth of each room to the positioning of every window to frame the view. After lengthy debates with zoning and the neighbors, “the science proves out,” says Fry. The finished project is a modern home that despite its differences to its neighbors, looks very much at home among the landscape.
