A Modernist Amagansett House by Julian and Barbara Neski

A 1982 house designed by the modernist duo Julian and Barbara Neski found new owners in 1994 who renovated the rooms and brought a collection of furniture from the middle of the century.
Photo: Tony Lattari

In the 1950s, Barbara and Julian Neski worked for the architect Marcel Breuer, carrying out his program of austere lines and heavy forms. But when Barbara presented herself pregnant with their first son, she was dismissed. The couple broke out themselves, and has acquired a reputation In the 1960s for lighter modern houses and gidded – finally building 25 weekend pensions through the Hamptons. A 1972 house for two performers centered on a spiral staircase, they could float, like the cissers of a stage set. In East Hampton, a 1964 house with a pair of highly inclined roofs showed a severe flair which had to annoy the neighbors of neighboring chalets.

In Amagansett, the birches around a hilly land were the inspiration For a 1982 house built for a head hunter and his family. Rather than flatten the site, the Neskis raised the house on thin support columns of the width of neighboring trees. The house in the shape of the L-shaped seems to slide in the woods, like a yacht. A large bridge that rolls up in the back is around 900 square feet, enough space for each of the three bedrooms to have its own private balcony (primary, in a corner, has two) and for an outdoor dining room off the kitchen, shaded by an extension of the roof.

“It really seems that you are in the trees,” said Myles Reilly, the broker who found the house for Kathy Formmy 30 years ago and sells it now. The house is retained by columns, allowing a car to drive below.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Right next to the kitchen is a shaded place to eat or lounge outside.
Photo: Tony Lattari

The house itself is simple, like most of the most famous conceptions of Neskis, and only 2,200 square feet. Inside, it focuses on an open living room crowned with a sunroof that goes from a wood fireplace to a passage in the kitchen. But, for the most part, the design avoids all the attention of views through the floor windows to the ceiling, and invites visitors to enjoy their freedom with a ramp at the entrance which seems to encourage the delimitation of the top and down. “It tells you to drop your hair,” said David Sokol, the author of Modern Hamptons. “He recognizes that the weekend has started, and it’s time to reconnect with the inner child a little more.” There is a touch of Breuer and its cantilevers, but the house does not feel “stuck in Amber,” said Sokol. “In the work of the Neskis, and in this particular house, you can see the influence of the 1920s and yet it is something else.”

When Kathy FORMBY saw the house for the first time in the 1990s, she had built a fashion career designing accessories that would not feel instantly dated. “Incrost-it was always my goal,” she said. A painter by training, she created The Ricky bag For Ralph Lauren before helping to direct Chanel Successful reinvention a line of luggage from 1856. But it is perhaps the minimalism of an old boss, Calvin Klein, who adapted him to the style of the Neskis. “There is something he said that I have always used in all kinds of aesthetic decisions,” she said. “Think about the design, throw it to her heart only Put what is necessary.

The bridges that wrap the house add around 900 square feet of outdoor space.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Kathy and his ex-husband, the executive of J.Crew Scott FORMBYstripped the brown pad, the bad blinds and the brass sconing left by the last owners, who did not seem to correspond to the gray exterior of the house or to the simple lines. They bathed the exterior to a lighter gray shade, sprayed the interior in a white paint and brought heat to the bedrooms and bathrooms using natural materials only: floor of river stone, sea surveyor wall coverings. Furniture came from their collection Ludic classics in the middle of the century: black leather swinging munnifère on a thick shag carpet; Metal basket chairs by Bertoia in suspension in the shape of a pine by Poul Henningsen. The news of the elegant house has reached the fashion world and, through it, the husband of a creator of Calvin Klein – architecture criticism Alastair GordonWHO knew the Neskis welland wrote to them in his 2001 book, Weekend utopia. “They were not focused on the ego, focused on money. They really liked design, “he said. This is how he felt Forms. Gordon organized a meeting between the couple and the Neskis, that he wrote in 2000 for the New York Times. The Neskis were delighted with what the couple had done with the place and felt connected to their new owners – leading to invitations to FORMBY Indian pipe flowers And to visit their own house In Water Mill. They discussed plans to develop with a swimming pool and an art studio (Kathy is a painter), but the Formbys could not bear to do so. “We really didn’t want to cut the trees,” she said.

Thirty years later, even if Kathy Formmy finds himself to admire the intelligent design of the house – a hidden outing, the flow between the rooms – the trees are always the centerpiece, the falsification of the house with green in summer, red in the fall and, a few weeks ago, standing as painted lines against the winter landscape. “We had this big snowfall and everything was covered with white,” she said. “It’s difficult to explain, but the house changes. It changes all the time.

Visitors enter by ramp, in a hall that divides the house between a series of guests, by this door and access to the main and open fair.
Photo: Tony Lattari

The entrance hall, with a painting by Matthew Satz, who uses smoke to color his canvases. Kathy FORMBY is friends with Satz and initially studied painting before illustration work attracted her to a fashionable career. The door leads to an open life and a dining room.
Photo: Tony Lattari

The living room in the center of the house is lit by a glass wall and a series of light wells. The Formbys decorated with an eclectic design of design in the middle of the century, and Kathy then filled the plant space which it puts on the bridge in summer.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Behind the wooden fireplace, a passage leads to the primary suite.
Photo: Tony Lattari

The Driftwood chair is from California, the Shag carpet is from France, and Palms painting is by a friend.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Bertoia chairs surround a Jens risk table. The Forms collected furniture from the middle of the century which they filled in an apartment in Greenwich Village before buying the retirement of the weekend.
Photo: Tony Lattari

A long chair by Bruno Mathsson faces the fireplace. The room behind it shows the L -shaped shape of the house and leads to the guest rooms.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Behind the dining table is a pass size for a bottle of wine that connects the kitchen, without giving an overview of its size.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Kathy FORMBY was cautious in a recent renovation to replace the oak cabinets with an exact correspondence. The counters are the original Corian. “We have never been for crazy and fabulous marble backrests – the trend of the time. I hope this house is a kind of trend. »»
Photo: Tony Lattari

The cabinets designed by the Neskis hide a paper support and add heat to the room.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Back behind the living room fireplace, in a corner of the house which examines an uninterrupted view, the master bedroom has two separate bridges – both cut off from the rest of the house.
Photo: Tony Lattari

The main bathroom, where the Formbys discovered outings at the back of the drawers – ideal for hiding heels and electric toothbrushes. The Formbys added the stone floor.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Remove from the hall in the other direction, far from the living room, there are two guest bedrooms, each with their own balcony and each bite in maritime grass.
Photo: Tony Lattari

Kathy FORMBY also used the second bed and breakfast as a office space.
Photo: Tony Lattari

A second bathroom is in the invited wing.
Photo: Tony Lattari