Seaside, Sybaritic, and Sensuous
Feeling inordinately rich and profligate? You might consider buying this lavish oceanfront estate. Feeling inordinately rich but parsimonious? Bear in mind that the price is only half that paid by Seinfeld for Billy Joel’s place, so you might still consider buying this lavish oceanfront estate. Whatever your point of view, it’s a big ticket and a lot of opulence—$16,000,000 for five acres, 500 feet of oceanfront, 17 rooms, and every indulgence that the pampered moneyed class requires.
Architecture: It’s vintage Norman Jaffe—dramatic spaces and a sophisticated mix of rich materials. It’s architecture with point of view: muscular, confident, and energetic. Large main house, guesthouse, pool house, indoor and outdoor pools, staff quarters, gym, carpeted garage, tennis court, and, well, what else can you possibly think of?
Site: Important oceanfront, and plenty of it. Ocean views to the south and Cooper’s Neck Pond to the north. Elaborate landscaping and pink stone terraces.
The inside word: It might be easier to sell if the style were more conventional and more traditional. It will take a certain kind of buyer—not just deep pockets but a deep appreciation of this architectural style. There is a brash kind of fantasy at work here that seems more suited to James Bond in 1985 than to some newly minted dot.com mogul. But it has the location, quality, and that complete estate character that will appeal to more imaginative and adventurous buyers.
Agawam Aristocrat
Glamorous entrepreneur Candace Carpenter made a fortune as founder of iVillage.com, but the stock pancaked in the recent technology slump. She has now listed her Lake Agawam estate for sale at $9,000,000. Is there a connection? We honestly don’t know if the reason she’s selling is financial, or if there is a more personal motive. Maybe she’s busy working on the next fortune. One thing is not in doubt: it’s a serious property. There’s nothing nerdy or weird, nor anything to suggest quick tech money here. It’s pure Southampton estate area luxury in tasteful shingle-style.
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Architecture: Sidewalls and gambrel roofs wrapped in cedar shingles from ground to third story peak, double-hung windows, French doors and brick terraces—this is a politically correct Hamptons estate.
Site: Two enchanting acres with sunset views, mature specimen trees and Lake Agawam sedately lapping at the back yard dock. There is a sureness, a quiet confidence, about this property. It’s ancestral Southampton, redux and refined.
Condition: Even though it is recent construction, a genteel and patrician nature shines through. It can only get better as it grows older.
The inside word: The large main house and not-so-small guesthouse are legally separated—though not divorced. It’s a sophisticated arrangement, and aesthetically neither house should be entirely isolated from the other. The grouping gives you certain abilities you might not choose to exercise, such as separate rentals, but it enhances value.
Bells and Whistles
“Broadview” was the name chosen by Dr. D. M. Bell for the large estate he created on the shores of Gardiner’s Bay in Amagansett in 1924. Some of us remember Dr. Bell as a brilliant, somewhat eccentric inventor, dreaming up what we imagined to be gothic fantasies in a compound that included a power station, firehouse, water tower, deep water dock and a chair lift along the cliff. In the early 1980s, after his death, the estate was subdivided into luxury lots, and renamed simply “The Bell Estate”.
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Architecture: Rambling, shingle-style, vaguely reminiscent, we’d like to think, of Dr. Bell’s grand Georgian mansion, which was lost to fire in 1991. It’s a bit heavy on decorative accents, but packed with all the luxuries constitutionally guaranteed to the affluent crowd.
Site: Two acres on a high bluff. From the freeform waterside pool, you look east over Gardiner’s Bay to Cartwright Shoals, Promised Land and Montauk Point. The vista is beautiful, relatively unspoiled, and if you know your local history, dotted with interesting sites—one of the more interesting but less historical being the next door neighbor, Addams Family producer, Barry Sonnenfeld.
Condition: Excellent shape, ready to stand up to that northeast wind. Components, as you would expect, are top quality and there are two or more of virtually everything.
The inside word: When brokers started calling this the “Amagansett estate area” it seemed a stretch. But, if not exactly prophetic, the term was self-fulfilling, and prices in the Bell Estate have far outpaced neighboring locales. Just a few years ago, $5,000,000 would get you a major oceanfront estate, but times do indeed change, and that’s now the range for a bit of opulence on the bay.
Home Theater
Leave your modesty at the gated drive. However refined, there is movie star drama here. You enter through a sunken evergreen garden overlooking a waterfall. You ascend a floating staircase to a double height living room with a wall of windows, a fireplace of massive stones, and a soaring ceiling of clear cedar, the room rising like a cliff over your private pond. The 80’s modernism is lush—but just anarchistic enough to hint at the deconstructionism of the 90’s.
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Architecture: Specifications and detailing are as important as design and layout in this 7,000 square foot residence. This house depends on a delicate balance of granite, cedar, copper, glass and rough stone. Even water and trees seem integrated into the design.
Condition: High style = high maintenance. But you can write a check, walk right in, sit right down.
Site: Two and a half landscaped acres, with pond, pool and other imperatives of the wealthy. Top location just off Further Lane, strolling distance to Seinfeld and assorted celebrities.
The inside word: Certain elements, such as the fixed seating, carry us back to the era of Armani power suits. Moreover, the Norman Jaffe style is tied to its time and clearly not for everyone. But the singular concept and remarkable quality come through strong and clear. The finely calibrated mix of bucolic and theatrical should appeal to success-driven young New Yorkers. And the price of $3,950,000 seems fair for this gorgeous modern estate.