Hither Woods

The fascinating history of this property in Montauk inspired the structural system, and ultimately defined the experience of the new home that occupies it. When Carl Fisher, the developer of much of Montauk, defaulted in the Great Depression, the Daily Mirror Newspaper bought his land holdings as a marketing opportunity. In 1940 the newspaper subdivided the land into 25’x100’ lots and ran full page ads under the headline “Subscribe to Happiness…”, offering the lots to their readers for $100 each, including free train tickets for would-be buyers. The marketing campaign and modest lot sizes aimed to make the summer “playground of the rich” accessible to the working class. The minimum purchase per buyer was 2 lots and the maximum 5, creating a range of price points and property sizes.

Having secured affordable land through this novel process, many of the new buyers turned to innovative construction methods as well. Leisurama homes available through Macys Department Stores, Techbuilt kit homes, and Lustron homes promised contemporary through prefabrication, mass production, and clever structural efficiencies. The designs often featured prefabricated trusses or glue laminated timbers both as design elements, and to provide open floor plans by way of their long efficient spans. These technologies became popular in the Montauk development and inspired the design of this recently completed home.

The home for an interior designer and her family features 8 prefabricated steel trusses that run the full length of the house. In the same way the long spans of glue laminated beams in the 40’s and 50’s broke down the barriers between rooms and created today’s ubiquitous open floor plans, the much longer spans of this new truss design diminish the barriers between inside and out. Exterior rooms are nested between the interior rooms in a checkerboard pattern that maximizes the family’s connection to the outdoors. Sliding glass doors pocket into the walls to completely erase the division between interior and exterior. The depth of the trusses is optimized according to the length of the spans: minimal depth over the smaller private spaces, increasing depth over the larger public spaces, and maximum depth over the cantilevered corner. At their maximum, the trusses are deep enough to nest the children’s bedrooms within them for maximum structural efficiency.

On a smaller scale, off-the-shelf quarter round molding installed over marine-grade plywood clads the trusses, protecting them from the weather and preventing thermal bridging between exterior and interior spaces. The herringbone pattern of the quarter rounds reflects the diagonal webs of the trusses. Further, the quarter round profiles catch the light, both natural light outdoors and integrated in light fixtures indoors. Finally, the quarter round screens allow for the seamless integration of custom ventilation and speaker grilles. The profile is repeated throughout the home in stone and millwork details.

By not only employing, but featuring large prefabricated structural elements, the design creates new opportunities to connect the family with the landscape and surrounding neighborhood. The home aspires to reflect the innovation and optimism of that neighborhood. And in that spirit of optimism, as the original ad put it, the home “solves their vacation problems forever”.