THE 2006 HC&G IDEA HOUSE

September 1, 2006

Evoking the shingled summer colony houses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the 2006 Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Idea House made its dramatic debut last month. Designed by architect Steven W. Semes and built by Richard Gherardi of Sand Dollar Development as a hybrid of British Arts and Crafts and Hamptons shingle-style homes, the Idea House was bedecked inside and out by more than two dozen talented decorators under the skillful direction of Mabley Handler Interior Design.

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"I've been working on houses in the Hamptons since 1993," says 2006 HC&G Idea House architect Steven W. Semes. "In that time, I've gotten to know the historical styles of the area. With this house, I'm trying to reestablish the traditions of the area from the 1880s to the 1920s. It is a period when there was a varied summer colony style."

As Semes points out, it was a time when city life was so formal that life in the country was allowed to be more casual—and that extended to the architecture as well. There are very few examples of anything pure from the period; rather, most of the houses in the Hamptons were hybrids.