AIA Peconic Design Awards Recognizes Outstanding Architecture

AIA Peconic, the East End’s chapter of the American Institute of Architects, honored outstanding architectural design on the East End and farther afield at its Daniel Rowen Design Awards on Saturday, January 11, at the Ross School in East Hampton.

Both completed projects and unbuilt designs were eligible for awards, as long as the plans were by architects who are based on the East End or who did work here.

Bates Masi + Architects of East Hampton earned an Honor Award in Architecture for “Kiht’han” and the Merit Award in Architecture for “Acton Cove.”

Kiht’han, in Sagaponack, overlooks a coastal pond and was built in a flood-prone area. According to the firm, rather than trying to hide the flood-damage prevention measures, the design takes advantage of them, embracing the wetland landscape. The house, pool, decks and sanitary field are elevated and broken apart to let floodwaters flow through, making flooding a nonthreatening event, the firm states. Glass-enclosed bridges connect the vertical columns that make up the residence and offer a space from which to appreciate the flooded area in wet periods and the native plantings in drier periods.

Acton Cove is located on Chesapeake Bay in the area of Annapolis Harbor. The residence was built on a site with bulkheads and docks where a 1970s house stood. “As the previous house was demolished, layer upon layer of old bulkheads and fill revealed how generations of previous owners had expanded the site into the harbor and reinforced it from the elements,” Bates Masi + Architects detailed in its synopsis of the project. The new design provides privacy and weather protection, with a boardwalk made of 2-by-8 ipe decking above the bulkhead and connecting several docks. The ground level is elevated above the flood plain, and deep overhangs protect the house and provide shade to the surrounding decks. The second floor, with its own cantilevered decks and balconies, is wrapped in layers of ipe screens and canvas drapes that can provide both privacy and a wind block. And the house is LEED certified.

Also this month, Kiht’han earned Bates Masi + Architects an Award of Merit in the Wood Design & Building Awards, as did the firm’s “Sagg Farm” project, also in Sagaponack.

Architecture AF, a firm with offices in Brooklyn and Richmond, Virginia, won an Honor Award in Historic Preservation for “Antler House,” a restoration project in Springs.

The mid-century residence, designed by renowned beach house architect Andrew Geller in 1968, is just 1,115 square feet. According to Architecture AF, Antler House was perhaps Geller’s most whimsical design, looking like “a wooden spaceship in the forest.”

The house was restored by removing later additions and putting back original materials, such as replacing gypsum board with fragrant cedar. The project also included the addition of a raised deck.

Martin Architects was feted for its “Sagaponack Farm Stand” in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation/Adaptive Reuse.

The project was the former homestead of Nathan Pierson, who built a family courtyard adjacent to farmland in 1790, according to Martin Architects, which is based in Sagaponack. The Hildreth family later owned and further developed the property. The land has since been subdivided, and the current owner, Tony Woods, possessed only the structures on the western portion of the original estate. Using historical records about the structures’ original tenants as a guide, Martin Architects removed nonsignificant elements and additions then restored what remained, maintaining the colonial architecture vernacular.

Working with builder Ian Evans, two of the houses on the property were lifted to be put on new foundations, and materials — including old ballast stone from whaling ships — was sourced from Stonington, Connecticut, the sister village of Sag Harbor.

Bridgehampton firm Blaze Makoid Architecture received three awards.

The “Sagaponack” project, which earned a Merit Award in the Project Unbuilt category, is a plan for “a traditional barns meets a mid-century modern beach shack.” The project expresses Sagaponack’s dual identity as an area known for both fertile farmland and experimental modernism, according to the firm.

The minimalist main level consists of expansive windows and board-formed concrete. A proposed “barn” with a gabled roof would have shou sugi ban siding — wood that has been charred and oiled for durability and preservation. The outdoor spaces and elevated pool are designed to take full advantage of the view of the neighboring agricultural reserve — and a roof deck provides a sweeping vista.

Blaze Makoid Architecture’s project “Shooting Star,” a home situated on the Jackson Hole valley floor in Teton Village, Wyoming, received both a People’s Choice Award and a Merit Award. Two two-story wings are linked at a single-story glass entry hall. The south wing has a vaulted great room, kitchen and dining areas, and a cocktail room and home office on the first floor and the master suite above. The north wing houses the bunk room, laundry, ski room, garage/gear storage and outdoor ski lockers, guest suites and TV lounge.

The cedar shingle, gabled, cold roof is engineered to hold snow in the winter and disappear into the landscape from the mountain, according to Blaze Makoid Architecture.

The Lacuna Project, a Sag Harbor-based architectural firm, won an Honor Award in the Emerging Architect category for its “House 9.” The 4,800-square-foot residence on Shelter Island was under construction at the time of contest entry. With a $1.5 million construction cost, including a pool and pool house too, the plan is for a stealthy, sustainable house that requires minimal maintenance.

MB Architecture’s proposal for Herrick Park in East Hampton Village won an Honor Award for Unbuilt Projects, and its “Amagansett Case Study #6, a modular house made from shipping containers,” won a Jurors’ Award for Architecture.

The East Hampton firm prepared a design proposal for the improvement of the existing Herrick Park, including new benches, pathways, support amenities and attractions. The plan, the firm explained, is to make the park a connective tissue between the village’s luxury retail core and its burgeoning light retail and affordable core.

Bridgehampton firm Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects’ “Office Barn” won a Jurors’ Award for Architecture. The landscape architecture office was designed with an indoor-outdoor relationship in mind, making natural light and the landscape visible and accessible from multiple points. It has a Japanese-style entry garden at the parking area that leads to the open floor plan office space. A wall of glass faces east toward a garden between the office and a residence that shares the property.

DiSunno Architecture of Sag Harbor was the recipient of the Jurors’ Award for Historic Preservation for “Ram Island.”

The 26-acre Ram Island, surrounded by Bull Head Bay, Sebonac Creek and Great Peconic Bay, is in a remote location, accessible via a small bridge, across from the National Golf Links.

The island has stayed in the same family for generations but was subdivided and distributed to family members, DiSunno Architecture explained. On the north side of the island, 15.2 acres were set aside for a family compound. Five existing historically relevant buildings are the subject of a several-years restoration project. Two structures were moved and three structures were reimagined with new uses. Plus, a new building was designed. The resulting compound has a main house — formerly a pump house with a water tower — a guest house, a pool house, a playhouse, a dock building and a dock house.