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
219 BAY WALK
AUDIO
Architect: UNKNOWN, 1961. Renovation: JAMES STREACKER & SCOTT ALBHORN.
A typical early 1960’s cottage by an unknown architect, 219 Bay Walk transcends its humble origins through the meticulousness of its restoration and the addition of a modernist landscape. The house was built in 1961 for Harry and Helen Kraft. Harry was an engineer for Grumman Aircraft and a long-time Pines Fire Department volunteer. Helen served as its dispatcher. During the summer months, they lived on a boat in the Harbor and rented their house.
Upon purchasing the home in 2000, James Streacker and Scott Albhorn undertook a series of subtle improvements with outsize results. An accumulation of gestures--none of them showy, all of them poetic--result in a pleasing diversity of outdoor spaces, from a raked sand garden culled from the Harbor dredging, to the perch of an upper deck with low benches, to a slate-lined valley below. Nature is everywhere, yet nothing is left to chance. One example is an inviting bench at the entry porch, painted to match the leaves of the adjacent Japanese maple. Best of all, the homeowners refrained from erecting a tall fence around it all, thus capturing the original spirit of Fire Island Pines as a public place to enjoy private architecture.
The new architectural gesture inside is a dining room that was converted from a bedroom. Carefully composed openings in its wall maintain a zone of privacy amidst all of the admiring passers-by. In its un-fussy way, the original architecture is also well suited to the beach. A raked ceiling leads to clerestory windows that draw breeezes through the main space. A rich palette of wood and tile, including hard-to-find “wormwood,” warms the interior. The kitchen will resonate with fans of Mad Men: Betty Draper would feel right at home chain-smoking around its Formica peninsula.
Photos: Tom Sibley.
