Walking Dune
Amagansett, NY

This residential project in Amagansett, NY is inspired by the legacy of abstract expressionists who lived and worked in the area, including Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollack, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, and Robert Motherwell, as well as the site’s dune ecology. The beachfront site is separated from the ocean by a conservation easement with protected, grassy dunes that provide critical habitat for plovers and other threatened wildlife. The project architects conceived of an elevated house on high stilts, with views across the dunes and out to the horizon, leaving the ground underneath the building mostly unobstructed. STIMSON proposed a site design based on the “walking dunes” found in nearby Hither Hills State Park. Sand that was excavated during building construction was kept on site and planted with American beachgrass and seaside goldenrod to restore the delicate dune ecology. Ephemeral paths wind through the dunes. Over time, wind and water will gradually move sand across the site, where it will aggregate around the bases of the building’s columns and a collection of sculptural quarry blocks placed under the building. The planting along the street, opposite the dunes, is reminiscent of back dune and maritime forest ecology, where plants like beach plum, shadblow, and American holly grow in conditions sheltered from ocean winds.

Collaborators
Bates Masi Architects
Men at Work
Billy Hajek Permitting
Summerhill Landscapes
SL Maresca Engineers

Photography
Ngoc Minh Ngo