Hard Rock
It’s a stone house on a bluff overlooking a blue-gray sea, but any similarity to Manderley in Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca ends there—no gothic dead wives shrines, no ill-tempered housekeepers skulking around. The mystery here is in a cold, complex geometry composed in stone, glass, steel, and rich exotic woods.
Insider Real Estate Rating
Architecture: Superb, conceptual modern design.
Site: 1.7 acres next to a reserve in the Bell Estate, Amagansett, with beautiful views of Gardiner’s Bay.
Condition: Immaculate, of course. High design like this demands gravitas: serious, flawless and devoid of clutter.
The inside word: Maybe less is more architecturally, but at $4,750,000, less is also very expensive. This quality of perfectionist minimalism calls for sumptuous materials and costly workmanship. Even deducting land value, the price per square foot here is stunning. But this modern masterwork can put to shame all the palazzos and gimmicky post-moderns and McMansions that have recently littered our landscape.
Extreme Georgica
Michael and Eleanore Kennedy’s oceanfront house, Kilkare, is one of the icons of the Hamptons, not least because it has appeared in more television commercials than even Michael Jordan. Their once overlooked guesthouse, augmented and upgraded over the years, is now listed separately for sale. Though hardly in the same architectural class as the main house, its formidable location—on two acres in the Georgica Association—is igniting lots of interest among high rollers in town.
Insider Real Estate Rating
Architecture: In a word: Nantucket. It might be too derivative or too understated for some tastes, but in the dunes of Wainscott it is an appropriate style source. Overall, it works well—especially the barn-like addition—and blends gracefully with the land.
Site: Extreme real estate. Two acres, with 161 feet of frontage on the beach, and one of the most compelling addresses in the Hamptons. Access from the Georgica Association road, or if you are unfriendly to speed bumps, also from Beach Lane.
Condition: Neat as a Nantucket street. Though the house is large, luxurious and in perfect shape, the price of $8,250,000 is reasonable enough for merchant princes to look at this as a building lot.
The inside word: The double whammy views—of the ocean and Georgica Pond—are exceptional, but you only get them from the second floor master bedroom. The generous 22,000 square foot building envelope is being pointed out to potential buyers—indicators that make us suspect that the T word—teardown—is floating subliminally in this offering.
High Society Highway
Highway Behind the Pond is one of those magical small streets in East Hampton. It is a highway only in the topsy-turvy sense that large shingle mansions are called cottages.
Starting at Dunemere Lane, with the Maidstone Club golf course on its east, and Hook Pond on its west, the lane-sized road winds south in a serpentine pattern to the nearby beach. It is a quiet, dignified street on the surface, but it packs a real wallop in Hamptons real estate. Because of this, we decided to check out a $7,000,000.listing there.
Insider Real Estate Rating
Architecture: Nineteen fifties construction with renovations in the eighties generally does not bode well in the architecture department. At least in the estate areas, it implies a nice, rich person’s home—luxurious certainly, but also predictable and safe. To some extent, this property manages to overcome its roots, or rather, its times
Site: Location is the indispensable factor in this offering. While not on the water, it has superb views of Hook Pond from its lavishly landscaped two-acre site.
Condition: One good thing about that rich person’s home category is that the houses are impeccably maintained. From the stone-floor entry to the paneled library, this one is perfect.
The inside word: This traditional house is not cutting edge anything, but it’s very nice on its own terms. While it is not exactly what anyone would build now, the space and quality are evident, and the location and views are singular and surpassing. People will be bidding on this one.
Luxe calme et volupté
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 less than a third that paid by Seinfeld for Billy Joel’s place, so you might consider this lavish oceanfront estate a bargain. Whatever your point of view, it’s a big ticket and a lot of creature comforts—$9,750,000 for just about every indulgence that the pampered moneyed class requires.
Architecture: Derived from Edwin Luytens, but done with enough thought, money and elegance not to feel like an Edwardian imitation. Some remarkable details, such as a barrel vault ceiling in the living room, further set it apart from recent “traditionals”.
Site: Important and unusual Water Mill oceanfront, with sweeping views of the Atlantic to the south, Jule Pond to the north, and unspoiled dunes to the east.
The inside word: There is a brash kind of fantasy at work here—an instant version of a century old aesthetic. Almost 10,000 square feet of house with an array of rooms—formal living and dining rooms, family room, beach room, screened porch—most with fireplaces—add up to a lot of house and a lot of fantasy. With the location, quality, and sense of luxury, this property should find a ready buyer.