Shelter Island is located at the fork of Long Island, a few hours’ drive from New York City. Although the house is in a semi-rural location, the clients very much identify themselves as tied to the city both socially and professionally. As both a retreat from the intensity of the city and as a gathering place for socializing and entertaining, the house was designed to negotiate both the private and public areas.

With their minimalist exteriors, the Shelter Island house, and its smaller guest house perch just below the crest of a neatly sloping landscape. The main house is four times longer than it is wide, with a one hundred-foot (thirty meter) roof forming one continuous slope, the last eight feet of which are cantilevering over the deck. This overhang provides an informal entrance, a kind of portico, to the other areas of the property – the guest house, the rear terraces, and the swimming pool.

In this way, the composition of the two separate houses forms a courtyard, connected by the large, open overhang. This gives a sense of urban enclosure for garden parties or a polite distance from weekend guests. The guest house also provides a perfect venue for a remote home office for the owners or visitors.

After designing the two main buildings of this summer residence, ACHA worked closely with the owner in designing the interiors. The interior finishes and furnishings are light in color and material to give both a sense of spatial expansion and lightness during the summer heat. The kitchen, dining, and living rooms are contained within the open plan. ACHA used the 1950s experimental Case Study houses as a reference for the design. The precedent appears both in the layout of rooms and in the use of industry standard building systems to create an unconventional house flexible in its use, that provides privacy for its owners as well as space for their many guests. 

The house has been published by Elle Décor, several books and magazines, and was part of the Shelter Island Historical Society House Tour.