Even with all of the contemporary Hamptons homes that have plastered magazine spreads and Instagram feeds, it’s unlikely that any will ever gain as much attention as East Hampton landmark Grey Gardens. Inhabited by Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (“Big Edie,” Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s aunt) and Edith Bouvier Beale (“Little Edie”), the home was immortalized in the 1975 documentary of the same name, which was later adapted into a Broadway musical. In the film, the state of the home was remarkable for its squalor. By the time it made its way into the pages of AD in the December 1984 issue, it had been meticulously restored by subsequent owners, Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee. The couple worked with architect E.L. Futterman and builder Robert Langman to reverse years of deferred maintenance, to put it gently. Quinn let attic furniture finds, decayed coats of paint, and the property’s titular garden guide her, bringing the space back to its bygone beauty with plenty of florals.
Steven Spielberg’s guest quarters
The guesthouse at Steven Spielberg’s East Hampton property is an idiosyncratic wonder, a traditional if imposing Pennsylvania Dutch barn relocated from New Jersey to sit aside the property’s main house. Architect Charles Gwathmey of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates designed the structure as a series of distinct geometric forms that flow one from the next. The pyramid-shaped ceiling of the living room is employed for a dramatic architectural impression. Inside, interior designer Naomi Leff chose a simple palette to balance the eye-catching, timber-frame ceiling. “The best thing about Naomi’s interior design is the selection of fabrics and their hues, even more than their textures,” Spielberg told AD in the guesthouse’s November 1994 feature.
Lee F. Mindel’s own Hamptons home
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Amongst other architectural feats, AD100 Hall of Famer Lee F. Mindel is known for opening dialogues between modernism and traditional design. It only makes sense that he crafted a home with markings of the style for himself. His retreat in East Hampton pulls from the traditional farm and Shingle-style houses of the area, with an exterior alluding to “barn doors and drawbridges,” according to a June 2007 article in the magazine. Mindel bisected the house with a three-story lantern of glass that pours south light into the north-facing façade. This shard of architectural ingenuity created indoor and outdoor courts; in both of which you can see the water while being protected from the wind.
