Hither Lane Residence
East Hampton, NY

The client wanted to create a summer compound for their family. It was to include a main house, two minor homes for each of their children plus a series of garden rooms and landscapes that would tie the entire 11-acre estate together. This vision was realized over the course of several years.

The site’s three dominant landforms: knoll, valley and plateau, provided inspiration for the design. The entry drive wound through an allee of gnarly trunked London Planetrees up to the plateau, where the house was situated. From this corner, the house capitalized on the sweeping views across the longest dimension of the site, the rolling topography of the valley, and up to the gentle curve of the knoll and sky.

From the opposite end of the property, the silhouette of the same knoll is visible against the horizon. The entry drive meanders along the knoll’s base, a wildflower meadow and through the mature Planetrees. Only an occasional glimpse of the main house, the ultimate destination, in offered. Upon arriving at the house the landscape’s character changes to an ordered series of garden spaces that pull you into the house and out again to the landscape. The graceful curves and forms that skip across the valley and knoll create a fitting counter point to the site walls and hedges that emerge from the architecture to create a series of ordered livable outdoor rooms: two private bedroom gardens and a sculpture court opposite the glass wall of the living room pavilion. Mostly native species help integrate the artificially created landscapes with the natural vegetation that surrounds them.

With Reed Hilderbrand Associates, Project Landscape Architect, Boston ASLA Award, National ASLA Honor Award

Photo: Alan Ward

Plan: Reed Hilderbrand Associates