FEATURES

TWO GRANDPARENTS BUILD AN OCEANFRONT PLAYHOUSE FOR THEIR THREE MARRIED CHILDREN AND EIGHT GRANDCHILDREN

When a retired Long Island couple met with architect Stuart Disston, a partner at Austin Patterson Disston Architects, and interior designer Sherrill Canet to discuss their ideas for a family beach house, the main goal was to get their three married children and eight grandchildren together under one roof.

"We really wanted to build something for the children," says the wife, who notes the age span is from five years old to 17. The couple's requirements for the oceanfront house ranged from the obvious (maximize water views) to the not so obvious (the kitchen must have a built-in Slushee machine). Nevertheless, both architect and designer worked through distinct challenges to give this six-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot Hamptons home—which also has a game room and movie theater—the warm, traditional beach-house aesthetic the residents had in mind.

The couple, who had rented summer homes in the area for more than a decade, heard about the architecture firm through friends. They tore down an existing house and in its place implemented the plan Disston devised to accommodate adults and children while carving out space for their clients. Disston also found a way to stay within the maximum building height stipulated by the town while taking advantage of the upper floor's elevated viewpoint. "We did an upside-down house," the architect explains. "Living spaces and the master are on the second floor and secondary bedrooms, the game room, movie room and storage rooms are on the first floor."

To keep in line with the cottage vernacular and visually reduce the exterior facade, the curving roofline, which hugs two large dormers, sweeps down to the top of the first floor. From the ground-floor foyer, two curving staircases climb to the upper level, where the ocean is visible through the living area. "I wanted the house to unfold," Disston explains. "It's there that it really opens up to the elements."