Remodeling Vacation Residence in East Hampton by Bates Masi Architects

The originally residence was design at 1974 in East Hampton New York. After Thirty-five years, new owners sought to rejuvenate the house while preserving its spaces, seasoned tones, and texture. Clad inside and out almost entirely in twelve-inch wide cypress boards, the original house exuded a straightforward simplicity the owners wished to maintain.

By constraining the palette of materials and reusing salvaged parts of the existing house; the line between new and old becomes nearly imperceptible, limited only to minimal inflections in finish. In the enlarged and updated baths, and in the modernized kitchen and dining terrace, dense glacial sedimentary sandstone is used for its fine workability into a variety of finishes. In this way the stone varies subtly – only in texture – as it is reapplied from one surface to another: horizontal walking surfaces are rendered with a smooth honed finish, vertical wall surfaces with a rough flamed finish, and countertops in a glossy polished finish.




This tactile language is traced consistently from room to room. In enhancing the simplicity of the original design, a subtle complexity has emerged. Splices, cuts, and finishing techniques inflect upon otherwise homogenous materials, recording the methods of craft and workmanship.