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Driving through the Northwest Woods neighborhood, it’s difficult to see the often small, far-apart, cedar-shingled houses beyond the dense columns of trees and leafy canopies. This sylvan enclave in East Hampton has a decidedly different feel from the rest of that tony beach town. But here, as in most areas on the East End of New York’s Long Island, things are rapidly changing.

A stretch of waterfront along Gardiners Bay that was developed in the late 1970s has, in recent years, seen many construction sites as larger structures replace those nearly 50-year-old traditional dwellings. On the highest point of the bluff, a new house by Brooklyn-based Worrell Yeung is hard to miss. “The client wanted a glass house,” says Max Worrell, who, together with partner Jejon Yeung, founded the 2022 Design Vanguard firm.

Unlike many of the others, this was not a heavily wooded plot. Instead, the residence faces directly on a road—the only trees on the 1.2-acre property were the handful of 200-year-old white oaks toward the bay, whose waters touch the sandy shore some 30 feet below the house. To provide privacy in the front, and the most expansive views possible of the magnificence at the back, the architects created a gridded facade that alternates opacity and transparency. Dark gray–stained cedar fills most of the panels along the street-facing elevation, but immediately upon entering the house—two bays wide by two bays tall by seven bays long—one is struck by the immense wall of glass on the opposite side, and the breathtaking panorama it lavishes on the young family that lives here, and their guests.

Cedar panels offer privacy at the house entrance, which faces on a road (above). A solar array tops the rectangular structure (top of page). Photo © Rafael Gamo, click to enlarge.

Occupying this space is a 36-foot-long, double-height volume that combines living, dining, and kitchen. Above the kitchen, large windows create a clerestory and flood the space with diffuse daylight. A muted color palette and minimal furniture and finishes ensure that the setting takes center stage. The two children’s bedrooms fill each corner to the north, while the primary suite, which comprises a large bathroom, generous walk-in closet, and a library, is located on a partial second level. (In the bedrooms, automatic shades block views to the inside from surprisingly close neighbors.) Filling out the lofted space is a small gym—and sometimes guest room—that looks out over the vast living area below. Outside, a narrow pool runs the length of the house. At night, when the view turns black, the family retreats to a home theater in the basement.

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The waterfront setting takes center stage in the main living area (1), with its fully glazed elevation facing the bay offering expansive views (2). Photos © Rafael Gamo

A structure with such purity of form meant that the locations and dimensions of rooms were pretty much prescribed. “We presented several schemes to the clients, some more formally expressive,” recalls Yeung. “But they chose the most taut, singular version.” The house became very much an object in the landscape. “We looked at archetypal glass houses, but also at sculptural pieces by artists such as Sol LeWitt,” he adds.

Perhaps more akin to those strong matrices by LeWitt than to early glass houses, which sought to make mullions disappear, the Frame House, as it is called, uses a thick steel frame to establish a rhythm for both the interior and exterior. Not quite square, the cedar and glass openings are 11 feet wide by 8 feet high on the lower level, and a foot taller on the upper one, just about reaching the maximum height allowed by code.

While the clients envisioned exposed steel, that kind of construction would not weather well in the harsh, salty coastal air. Instead, the steel members that make up the frame are clad in aluminum panels painted a dark gray to match the cedar. The seams where columns meet beams was heavily considered, with most giving expression to the I-beams that comprise them.

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A minimal palette presides over the interiors, including dark gray–stained cabinets and walls to match the house’s frame (3 - 5). Photos © Rafael Gamo

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The entire frame was coated with rubber waterproofing, an extra measure beyond the cladding and insulation, because of the waterfront locale. Worrell Yeung is familiar with the context, having previously completed a renovation to a 1970s house by Charles Gwathmey in nearby Amagansett, on the ocean, which entailed a full replacement of the building envelope. “We understood how resilient assemblies need to be for this region,” says Yeung. “While we never designed a glass house before, there was a lot of compiling of past experiences and research, and drawing from work with building typologies that are more commercial.”

Indeed, there are parts of the abode that elude a domestic quality— perhaps nowhere more so than in the large basement mechanical room, which is meticulously organized and appears to have the capacity to support a small museum. Radiant heating, a propane boiler, and a heat-recovery unit make up some of the HVAC strategy, along with a 24-kilowatt rooftop solar array. According to the clients, since moving in this past April, monthly electric bills have been below $15—while charging two electric cars in the hydraulic door-fitted garage.

Frame House needed to be sited at least 100 feet from the bluff edge, which, because it has slowly been deteriorating, meant getting closer to the road than the previous house on the property had been. Will this new house make it near to the half-century mark like the earlier residence? Or will the pace of coastal erosion speed up to cut short its lifespan?

With the surf 30 feet below it, the house rests on the highest point of the bluff. Photo © Rafael Gamo

What may be more likely is something else entirely, but something that happens all too frequently in these parts: a new owner, with different tastes but similar or greater means, will not do to this house what Worrell Yeung did to the Gwathmey-designed house. Instead, that owner will do what was unceremoniously done to the Spaeth House, and, to be fair, to the original house on this site—a complete teardown. We can only hope that won’t be the case.

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