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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
632 FIRE ISLAND BLVD
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Architect: JAMES MCLEOD, c. 1970.
632 Fire Island Boulevard does not nestle into so much as command the landscape from its monolithic plinth. Mel Blake, a dentist, and Frank Purnell, a radiologist, commissioned a home with a “super neutral” color palette for their prestigious modern art collection. Two structures connected by a breezeway formed an acropolis anchored by a swimming pool, its latter-day agora. Colonnades shielded art from the sun’s rays, while their curved silhouettes echoed the window profiles of their much-loved apartment at I. M. Pei’s Kips Bay Towers. It is one of two Fire Island Pines homes by James McCleod, who also designed Jerry Herman’s home. Constructed around 1970, its minimalist detailing does not entirely disguise neoclassical yearnings, at the same time that high-profile projects like Lincoln Center and the World Trade Center affected similar manners.
The stoic repose of the architecture stood in marked contrast to a measure of decadence that would have made the Romans blush. Boys in the Sand’s second act was filmed here, while its real-life owners gave the escapades depicted in the film a run for their money. Platters of Quaaludes studded their parties. The pool had a strictly enforced no-swimsuit policy. A sitting room at the northeast corner of the home functioned as an ad-hoc erotic film studio. In its alchemical mix of exquisite artistry and hedonistic abandon, 632 Fire Island Boulevard stands today as a monument to the Pines in all of its post-Stonewall glory.
Interiors: Otto Baitz. Exteriors: Edith Reichmann. Stills: Courtesy Wakefield Poole. Drawing: Claudio Bravo, Courtesy MFA Boston.
