The Bunshaft Residence, sometimes called the Travertine House was an iconic modernist home designed by architect

Gordon Bunshaft Gordon Bunshaft, (May 9, 1909 – August 6, 1990), was an American architect, a leading proponent of modern design in the mid-twentieth century. A partner in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Bunshaft joined the firm in 1937 and remained with ...

for himself and his wife on a 2.4-acre (0.97 ha) lot on the shore of

Georgica Pond Georgica Pond is a coastal lagoon on the west border of East Hampton Village and Wainscott, New York, and was the site of a Summer White House of Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1999. The lagoon is separated by a sandbar and is managed by the East ...

in East Hampton, New York. It was designed in 1962 and completed in

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

. It was one of the few residences designed by Bunshaft.

Design

The house was contained within a rectangular box, 100 feet (30.5 m) long by 26 feet (7.9 m) wide, with its long dimension tangent to the lagoon's shoreline to the south and raised on a broad six-foot berm above the floodplain. The exterior walls were poured-in-place concrete clad with

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...

and the exposed roof structure was made up of pre-stressed concrete beams with a " double T" shape, exposed on either edge with the openings filled with plate glass clerestory windows. The ends of the house were shaded by a 4-foot (1.2 m) extension of the roof and side walls with a paved strip extending the stone flooring to the edge of the walls. The main living spaces had floor-to-ceiling plate glass openings. Interior walls were white-painted plaster and the floors were travertine over a concrete slab foundation. The entry door, one of only two openings in the solid north wall, opened directly into a small entry hall between the central living room and the master bedroom. Opposite the open living area was a smaller guest bedroom and a study, separated from the living space by a U-shaped kitchen and the guest bath.

Art

The Bunshafts decorated their retreat primarily in off-whites with natural wood and glass and occasional red accents. Lighting was designed to highlight their art collection which included works by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Le Corbusier,

Jack Youngerman Jack Albert Youngerman (March 25, 1926 – February 19, 2020) was an American artist known for his constructions and paintings. Biography Jack Youngerman was born in 1926 in Webster Groves, Missouri, moving to Louisville, Kentucky in 1929 wi ...

, and Henry Moore as well as rocks with faces painted on them by Mrs Bunshaft.

Sale

When Bunshaft's widow, Nina Wayler, died in 1994, the house and its artworks were willed to the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York, New York. The Museum stripped the house of its valuable artwork and then sold the property, without any covenants or restrictions, to

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pu ...

for $3.2 million. In the 1990s, she commissioned a renovation by Minimalist British architect

John Pawson John Ward Pawson , (born 1949, Halifax, England) is a British architect whose work is known for its minimalist aesthetic. Architectural Registration Board (ARB) of UK asked Dezeen magazine not to refer him as architect although this was criti ...

, for which interior demolition was begun but the project stalled, reportedly, in part, due to a dispute with her neighbor, developer Harry Macklowe. Around the time that Stewart was embroiled in unrelated legal difficulties that resulted in a prison sentence, she transferred the property to her daughter, Alexis, who in turn sold it to Donald Maharam in 2004 for $9.5 million. He demolished it in July 2004 for construction of a new house by his son-in-law, David Pill.

References

;Notes ;Sources * Smith, Herbert L., Jr (May 1966) "Record Houses of 1966." ''Architectural Record.'' Building Types Study 359. * Caldwell, Kenneth (September 13, 2005)
Op-Ed: Modern Ironies: Notes on Losing the Bunshaft's Travertine House (1963)
. ArchNewsNow.com - accessed May 15, 2008 * Griffin, David V. (September 30, 2005)

''Preservation Online'' - accessed May 15, 2008 {{coord, 40.938156, -72.229614, display=title East Hampton (town), New York Modernist architecture in New York (state) Houses completed in 1963 Demolished buildings and structures in New York (state) Houses in Suffolk County, New York Buildings and structures demolished in 2004