Description
Fire Island Modernist - Horace Gifford & the Architecture of Seduction
Featuring new houses, many additional photographs and a new afterword, Fire Island Modernist offers a fascinating look at the history and culture of this "gay paradise" through the life and work of Horace Gifford
Published with Gordon De Vries Studio.
As
the 1960s became the "Sixties," architect Horace Gifford executed a
remarkable series of beach houses that transformed the terrain and
culture of New York's Fire Island. Growing up on the beaches of Florida,
Gifford forged a deep connection with coastal landscapes. Pairing this
sensitivity with jazzy improvisations on modernist themes, he perfected a
sustainable modernism in cedar and glass that was as attuned to natural
landscapes as to our animal natures. Gifford's serene 1960s pavilions
provided refuge from a hostile world, while his exuberant
post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS masterpieces orchestrated bacchanals of
liberation. Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift once
spurned Hollywood limos for the rustic charm of Fire Island's
boardwalks. Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's
here. Diane von Fürstenberg showed off her latest wrap dresses to an
audience that included Halston, Giorgio Sant' Angelo, Calvin Klein and
Geoffrey Beene. Today, such a roster evokes the aloof, gated compounds
of the Hamptons or Malibu. But these celebrities lived in modestly
scaled homes alongside middle-class vacationers, all with equal access
to Fire Island's natural beauty.
Blending cultural and architectural history, Fire Island Modernist
ponders a fascinating era through an overlooked architect whose life,
work and colorful milieu trace the operatic arc of a lost generation,
and still resonate with artistic and historical import. First published
in 2013 and long out of print, this iconic book returns in an expanded
edition, including five new featured houses, drawings of previously
unseen homes, new photography, updated scholarship and a new afterword
by Charles Renfro.
