Charles Gwathmey-Designed Amagansett House Sells For $3.5M

An Amagansett home by famed architect Charles Gwathmey sold for $3.5 million on Friday, January 17, after a couple of years on the market.

Located at 130 Bluff Road, it’s one of only two properties on Bluff Road with a grandfathered tennis court on a 1-acre lot, plus it has a pool. The residence has five bedrooms and three bathrooms inside 1,934 square feet. The living area has a double-height ceiling with large windows on all sides, and the roof deck offers ocean views.

Mr. Gwathmey was one of the New York Five, a group of architects also known as “the Whites” for their modernist style. In addition to Mr. Gwathmey, they were Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, John Hejduk and Richard Meier. In 1973 they published a book highlighting their works, “Five Architects.” Paul Goldberger wrote for The New York Times in 1996 that the Five shared “a commitment to the idea that pure architectural form took priority over social concerns, technology or the solving of functional problems.”

Gwathmey passed away in 2009. The North Carolina native — the son of the painter Robert Gwathmey and the photographer Rosalie Gwathmey — studied under the legendary architect Paul Rudolph at Yale University. His first foray in the Hamptons came in 1965 when, not yet a licensed architect, he designed a house and studio for his parents in Amagansett.

Hara Kang, Justin Agnello and James Keogh of Douglas Elliman’s Atlantic Team represented the seller and Matt Burns of Compass brought the buyer. In early 2017, another brokerage had the listing for $6 million. That asking price proved to be overly optimistic to a great degree. Douglas Elliman listed it in spring 2018 for $4.85 million.