AIA Peconic Presents 2024 Design Awards

AIA Peconic, the East End’s chapter of the American Institute of Architects, recognized outstanding design, sustainable architecture and adaptive reuse at the AIA Peconic Daniel J Rowen Memorial Design Awards on Saturday in East Hampton.

Paul Masi of Bates Masi + Architects in East Hampton took home both the only Architecture Honor Award — the top award level — and an Architecture Merit Award, which is just a step below the Honor Award. The former is for a residential project named Three Mile Harbor, on a building lot that is 10 times deep as it is wide.

“There is an extraordinary attention to materiality, details as emotional effect, that modulates the house form, space, light, and view,” the jurors said of Three Mile Harbor. “These ‘tonal’ moments of motion and emotion are elegantly combined to create intimate spaces of rhythmic space and pace. It performs much like the water and maritime atmosphere it reaches out to and resonates with. To quote Lawrence Halperin a bit out of context, it is a building environment that exists for the purpose of movement.”

Ben Krupinski Builder built Three Mile Harbor, and Bates Masi partnered with LSM Development Corp. and James C. Grimes Land Design on its Merit Award-winning project, Navy Beach.

“The elongated flow of interior living spaces, wood finishes, and surfaces connect beautifully with the diaphanous coniferous wood siding and woodland beyond,” the jurors said of Navy Beach. “This is a careful and sensitive study of indoor and outdoor living.”

Two more Architecture Merit Awards were handed out, both to the firm of Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects in Bridgehampton for residential projects.

Architects Michael Lomont, Jared London and Jonathan Walker earned their award for Ocean Bluff. “There is an economy of moves, both formally and materially, that allows the house to become a backdrop to its surrounding landform,” the jurors commented.

Project partners included LaGuardia Design Group, interior designer Eleanor Donnelly and Ronald Webb Builders.

Viola Rouhani, Luca Campaiola and Frank Guittard were recognized for Springy Banks, which the jurors called “a thoughtful and careful study of the ecological landscape of an historic site that extends well beyond the house.” The jurors continued, “We admired the quiet, reserved scale of the approach to the house and its restrained use of single material of stained wood siding.”

The partners were interior designer Brad Ford, Men at Work Construction and LaGuardia Design Group.

“The incredible waterfront setting with its forested landscape was the primary inspiration for this project,” Rouhani said. “Our goal from the start was to nestle the low-lying house into the topography to allow for an undisturbed appreciation of the surroundings, both from the inside and the outside. It’s a study in tranquility, and a sort of celebration at the same time.”

In the Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse category, Stuart Basseches, based in Sag Harbor, won a Merit Award for a project titled Round House.

Basseches shared that architect John Rawling designed the house for Asher Opler on 1.5 acres in the woods of Springs and their collaboration led to “a gestural work of sculpture that suited the owner’s whimsical nature.”

“The second and current owners fell in love with the house for its sculptural qualities: the odd-shaped rooms that engaged the natural surroundings, and the materials used to render the elements,” Basseches wrote in the project synopsis. “But after many years, when the need to add space and function to the original 2,600-square-foot footprint arose, the very nature of the house created an interesting problem: How to expand on a singular, closed form that defies expansion?”

The jurors praised Basseches for the difficulty and sensitivity of additions and alterations to the “strong radial geometry and structural logic of the original 1967 Rawlings house design.”

The project included adding a second radial structure that “eccentrically rotates and replicates the original house geometry” and “creates a bi-circular system of movement both formally and spatially,” the jurors wrote.

The general contractor was Witty & Gazda.

In the Unbuilt Projects category, Nilay Oza of Oza Sabbeth Architects in Bridgehampton earned a Juror Award for a proposal at Peconic Land Trust’s Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton. The firm was asked to renovate the Bridge Gardens welcome center into a multipurpose space that could accommodate a 150-person fundraiser one day and host classrooms and workshops the next, while providing workspaces for staff and a live-in suite for a caretaker.

“As we learned, this was its second adaptation,” the firm said. “It was first a potato barn; then it became a residence, and now a multipurpose, multidisciplinary outdoor classroom, demonstration garden, and community resource.”

The plan calls for making it appear as though the building grew out of the landscape, rather than being placed upon it.

“Large expanses of glass place the inhabitants within the gardens rather than separated from them,“ the project synopsis states. “A deep overhang added two further advantages: Easy access to an ample sheltered outdoor space, expanding usable footprint while at the same time reducing heat gain on the larger glazed surfaces.”

“The jury admired and appreciated the attention to the history of the cultural landscape of Peconic County,” the jurors commented.

The Design Awards jury for 2024 included Deborah Burke, the founding principal at TenBurke and dean of the Yale School of Architecture; Omar Gandhi, the principal at Omar Gandhi Architects Inc.; and Joeb Moore, the principle at Joeb Moore + Partners.

The Sustainable Architecture award had a separate jury: Whitney Smith, the senior climate and sustainability leader and associate principal with ARUP; Rives Taylor, the global design resilience co‐leader and principal with Gensler; and Anthony Harrington, the principal at PhDesign.

Architect Ric Stott of Southampton won an Honor Award for the “Sustainable Suites” at The Hampton Maid in Hampton Bays.

“I would like to thank the owners Steve and Sharon Poulakis for having faith in alternative construction materials like insulated concrete forms (ICF) and structural insulated panel (SIP), the United States Green Building Council’s LEED process, and, of course — their architect,” Stott said. “These small buildings will provide sustainable and healthy year-round spaces and will remain standing long after we’re gone.”

Partners included Tom Quarty of Quarty Construction, Vincent Capogna of Synergy ICF and landscape architect Araiys Design.

A Merit Award for Sustainable Architecture went to Hideaki Ariizumi and Glynis Berry of Studio a/b Architects for Diffusing Hut, a small house in East Marion intended for a residence, office and personal gallery.

“Diffusing Hut has strong directives in terms of its cladding and materiality,” the jurors said.

The People’s Choice Award went to Blaze Makoid of BMA Architects for a project named Southampton Oceanfront, with Write & Co. Construction and LaGuardia Design Group.

Additionally, Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore was presented with the second annual AIA Peconic Community Award.