ICRAVE Fashions a Private dream house in Amagansett NY

Jul

A retired New York investment banker and an elite triathlete, Alex May owned a charming shingled Amagansett weekend house perfectly in tune with the Hamptons beach vernacular. The ICRAVE friends eventually agreed to collaborate. “We say Alex co-designed with us,” Ohayon offers, explaining that May took the lead in sketching the lap pool. “He had a very clear idea.” The pool and its accompanying pavilion would compose the centerpiece of the hedged and gated precinct at the rear of the property.

Ohayon, for his part, tackled the pavilion, demolishing a pair of outbuildings and swapping in a two-part structure that manages to make a unified architectural statement. These flat-roofed volumes, 200 square feet apiece, essentially occupy the footprints of the demolished buildings. Cladding is horizontal cedar boards detailed with vertical posts in the same wood, now weathered to a soft silver-gray.

One volume houses a guest room, where a trio of glam Moroccan-style brass pendant fixtures hang above the bed, plus a half-bath and a closet. The other volume offers a spa concept, complete with a sauna and a hammam in addition to a shower. Both volumes boast tall sliding glass doors hung with white curtains and sheers that waltz in the coasta breeze.
The doors open to the pool, of course, and also to a central sunken lounge. It’s technically outdoors but sheltered by a canopy of muscular aluminum louvers. Closed, they block all but the fiercest downpour.

An oversize teak daybed suits the impressive scale of the lounge, which is anchored by a massive fireplace clad in steel. After dark, the flickering flames remind Ohayon of his experiences at Burning Man. “It’s about the elements and being outside,” he notes. Though this backyard setting is distinctly more Edenic. Chilled rosé, anyone?