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Their contemporary modernist house sits at a juncture between a maritime forest of shad, cedar and native cherry trees at its front and, behind, a double ridge of sand dunes and a wild seascape.

"Someone could have torn all this out, rolled out a lawn and built a McMansion. But we had visionary homeowners," Hollander says. "They saw the property's intrinsic value and wanted to make it a little better. Fact is, when we got there, it was tight, closed and dark, with hardly any views of the ocean. It was a diamond in the rough."

While she acknowledges that the property was somewhat "claustrophobic" when they purchased it, the wife also praises a previous landscape designer, Susan De Kleva, who is still in her employ.

"Susan and Joe [D'urso, the house's original decorator] created a very intimate ambience. It had smaller moments and special views of things out of windows that were very thoughtful," she said. "We like to entertain, however, and needed some larger outdoor spaces. Ed opened things up and made it livable. He added impact and excitement."

Beginning at the front, Hollander pruned the maritime forest to better display a stand of shad trees. Native to this stretch of the South Fork and on out to Montauk, shad (Amelanchier canadensis) have an elegantly gnarled appearance, with lichen-covered bark and a mysterious habit of sprouting multiple trunks.

"You can feel the power of the ocean in their branching pattern," Hollander says. "When you have 40 or 50 shad together, it's magical, like something out of Alice in Wonderland."

To highlight the trees' sculptural framework, he carefully trimmed back ground cover under their intertwined canopy and planted foliage like ferns and astilbes that are both shade loving and deer resistant.