Theothermajorarchitecturalmove,replacingthewindows, contributed to bothdistillingthehome’s appearance and increasing its energy efficiency. Working with JP Spano Building Corporation to ensure the construction would
stand up to the climate, Ike traded the multi-paned wood windows
for single-pane Marvin casements, sourced to give the glazing a
more square and horizontal appearance. And instead of simply
replacing the existing apertures, Ike reconfigured their placement
to refine composition and maximize the views from the inside of the
house, creating a rhythm between solid and void. “I think that’s
what modernism is about—it’s an abstracted composition,” Ike says.
The renovation is not the first time Ike had worked with the
clients—an art-collecting couple with grown children. A decade
before, he renovated their Manhattan apartment on Central Park.
For their East End family escape, the clients requested a bright
space that would showcase their collection in a gallery-like setting
while allowing views to the landscape they had cultivated over
the years. Benjamin Moore paint in Decorator’s White provides a
crisp backdrop to the family’s colorful geometric abstractions,
which include works by Howard Mehring, Ugo Rondinone and Pertti
Kekarainen in the entry, as well as a Damien Hirst spiral painting
over the living room fireplace. In a hallway, there’s another work by
Rondinone, a long piece with horizontal stripes of color. Elsewhere
are works by Yayoi Kusama, Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland and Roy
Lichtenstein. Throughout, the architecture frames and complements
the art, rather than distracting from it.
“The house is a hybrid,” Ike says. “It’s based on traditional
forms, with pitched roofs, but the fenestration is very clean and
modern, with large expanses of glass. Those simple things, the
squares of the punched windows and the textures of the siding and
the composition of the pitched roofs, all work together to make
a composition that I think is appropriate for East Hampton in this
decade in this century,” Ike says. “It has references to the past, but
it’s clearly a contemporary piece of architecture.” Ike Kligerman
Barkley, ikekligermanbarkley.com
ARCHITECTURE
