AUDIO
Pines Modern is a brand-new, non-profit 501(c)(3) endeavor dedicated to the rediscovery of all that the Pines has created, particularly its mid-century architectural and cultural heritage. We ask for your support in the form of tax deductible contributions to help us to continue discovering, documenting, and sharing the best that Fire Island Pines has to offer. There is much more to document! Our significant expenses include professional photography, drum-scanning of vintage images, creation and maintenance of the web site, required non-profit insurance, preservation consultations with homeowners, and the staffing of Pines Modern functions. Our officers are not paid for their efforts.
Donors at the $50 annual level and above will receive priority notification for house tours and other Pines Modern events. Each donor who contributes $150 and above will receive a free ticket to the next Pines Modern house tour. Please contact us if you would like to place an advertisement on our site.
For support regarding donations, send your message here.
2019 Contributors
Adam Wade
Pines Modern is a brand-new, non-profit 501(c)(3) endeavor dedicated to the rediscovery of all that the Pines has created, particularly its mid-century architectural and cultural heritage. We ask for your support in the form of tax deductible contributions to help us to continue discovering, documenting, and sharing the best that Fire Island Pines has to offer. There is much more to document! Our significant expenses include professional photography, drum-scanning of vintage images, creation and maintenance of the web site, required non-profit insurance, preservation consultations with homeowners, and the staffing of Pines Modern functions. Our officers are not paid for their efforts.
Donors at the $50 annual level and above will receive priority notification for house tours and other Pines Modern events. Each donor who contributes $150 and above will receive a free ticket to the next Pines Modern house tour. Please contact us if you would like to place an advertisement on our site.
For support regarding donations, send your message here.
2019 Contributors
Adam Wade
137 BEACH HILL WALK
AUDIO
Architect: HORACE GIFFORD, 1963. Addition: LOUIS MULLER, c. 1985.
From Beach Hill Walk, it may be difficult to square the sight of the home before you with its vintage images. That is because you are looking at the side of the house, while a second story was added around 1985 by Horace Gifford’s sometime collaborator Louis Muller.
Horace Gifford obtained the commission for the Leedom-Cott House through his first clients, Edwin Wittstein and Robert Miller. Kenneth Leedom, director of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, purchased a treeless, low-lying lot that was soon to be surrounded by other homes. Without views to exploit, Gifford created his own. A courtyard bounded by separate living and sleeping structures created a protected outdoor space. It also sheltered the lifestyle of its gay occupants at a time when the Pines was still a nominally straight community. Enormous sliding doors tucked into pockets to shut out prying eyes, while long, narrow jalousie windows facing east and west balanced privacy with cross ventilation. An article in The American Home’s 1964 Vacation Houses issue (which featured 291 Bay Walk on the cover) brought the Leedom-Cott House to a national audience. In the background of its double-page spread (on Coast Guard Walk) loomed a pokey knockoff of Gifford’s first, pyramid-roofed residence; after just two years in the Pines, Gifford already had lesser imitators.
This home is featured in Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction.
Professional Images and Plan: The American Home. 1-Story Snapshots: Courtesy FIPHPS. Section rendering: Christopher Rawlins. 2-story snapshots: Louis Mueller c/o William Murphy.
