New in the Bookshop: Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction
Jun 13, 2013
CHRISTOPHER BASCOM RAWLINS
Edited by Alastair Gordon
The Graham Foundation bookshop is carrying the recently published grantee book, Fire Island Modernist that showcases the remarkable series of beach homes designed by the little known architect Horace Gifford in the 1960s. Gifford was instrumental in shaping the landscape and culture of Fire Island, New York during an era when it served as a vacation destination for middle-class families, a retreat for celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, and a haven for an increasingly vibrant gay community. Gifford’s austerely beautiful pavilions of cedar and glass are both uniquely modernist and responsive to the fragile barrier island landscape. Christopher Rawlins along with editor Alastair Gordon have produced a careful study of Gifford’s architectural and cultural legacy in Fire Island Modernist that includes indulgent photographs alongside detailed floor plans and text.
Related Grant:
Press:
The New York Times, The Architecture of Seduction, Guy Trebay
New York Magazine, Sun Rooms, Carl Swanson
_
Binding: Hbk
Pages: 204
Publisher: Metropolis Books/ Gordon de Vries Studio
Publication Date: May 2013
ISBN: 9781938922091
