Inside Look: Dune CEO’s Southampton Home by Sawyer|Berson

Over the past few decades, the New York architecture firm Sawyer|Berson has designed a bevy of houses in the Hamptons. Admired for their stylistic versatility, founding partners Brian Sawyer and John Berson have masterminded everything from stately Colonial Revival residences to bold, contemporary compounds. But never before had the studio worked on a home quite like the one proposed by Richard Shemtov for a wooded single-acre property in Southampton.

Shemtov, the CEO and founder of furniture company Dune, was looking to build a weekend retreat to share with his wife, Dominique, and their three daughters, who range in age from 14 to 26. He envisioned something modestly scaled, modeled after traditional gable-roof barns but in a rigorously pared-down style. Key inspirations were Herzog & de Meuron’s Parrish Art Museum in nearby Water Mill and the Baron House in Sweden by John Pawson.

“It wasn’t our typical commission,” says Sawyer, who has known and worked with Shemtov for years. “It was an exercise in discipline, really, a fun puzzle to work out. We could fit a certain amount of program in the box.” Adds Berson, “As it turned out, that was a deceptively simple idea, to coordinate the plan and section and make the entire composition sing.”

A Southampton Home Three Years in the Making

To create a crisp silhouette, Sawyer and Berson sunk one of the structure’s two main levels entirely below-grade and devised the standing-seam roof, a weathered-gray zinc, so that it is flush with the perimeter edges and has hidden gutters. Expanses of 10-foot-high, black-painted aluminum–framed glass—most of which slide open—line much of the front and rear facades, while the rest of the exterior is clad in a distinctive recycled-glass brick.

The house’s ground floor encompasses an open living/dining area, the kitchen, and four bedrooms. The loftlike basement level—housing several entertaining areas, Shemtov’s home office, a laundry room, a gym, and a kitchenette—is completely column-free, which added significantly to the engineering complexity of the project. The house also expanded a bit as plans developed: A custom-fabricated carport was tacked on and room was carved out below the eaves to create a half level, a cozy attic den that can double as a guest bedroom. “It’s the house we wanted,” Shemtov says. “But we went way over budget and it took nearly three years to build.”

Interiors are by Homeowner Richard Shemtov

A big chunk of that time was devoted to fitting out the 8,000-square-foot interiors. It’s not uncommon for Sawyer|Berson to handle every aspect of a project—architecture, interiors, landscape—as can be seen in the duo’s forthcoming monograph, to be published by Rizzoli this fall in advance of the firm’s 25th anniversary. But in this case Shemtov oversaw the interiors himself, his first time designing a project of this scale. “Every inch of the house was considered and thought out, almost to the point where it was obsessive,” he admits.

A Courtyard Garden by Sawyer|Berson Brightens the Lower Level

The art is mostly things the homeowners have collected over years, works by friends or that have a personal resonance. One new acquisition is the Bernardo Siciliano painting of a restaurant interior that hangs in the dining area. The scene felt distinctly familiar to Shemtov, who learned after he bought it that the artist had based it on Lincoln, a restaurant in Lincoln Center where Dune created a custom banquette.

To bring light down into the lower level, Sawyer|Berson, which oversaw landscaping, created a courtyard garden with a series of amphitheater-style concrete terraces that are arrayed with a profusion of potted plants. “I originally saw it as a kind of hanging garden with things tumbling down,” says Sawyer. “Richard came up with the idea of lining it with pots, which I think is fun and punchy.”

The focal point of the rear grounds is a minimalist swimming pool, surrounded by porcelain-tile coping and a sweep of precisely graded lawn. There’s an outdoor kitchen and a poolside dining pergola, as well as a covered terrace that’s become one of the family’s favorite hangout spots. Shemtov imagines spending weekends and summers here with the girls—and, eventually, their families—for many years to come. “Labor of love is a commonly used term,” he says, “but with this house, it resonates a lot.”

Inside a Southampton Home by Sawyer|Berson 

sawyer|berson: alex taylor wilk

blue sky design: structural engineer

bk kuck construction: general contractor

toulemonde bochart: rug (lounge)

normann copenhagen: small side table

romo: chair fabric (lounge), drapery sheers (living area, dining area), banquette fabric (mudroom), bench fabric, window-treatment fabric (guest bedroom), settee fabric (main bedroom)

anna karlin: pendant fixture (dining area)

élitis: chair fabric

crosby street studios: rugs (dining area, guest bedroom)

schmitt design: chandelier (living area)

pollack: sectional fabric

kerry joyce: chair fabric

through jeff lincoln art & design: cocktail table, side tables

Ortal: fireplace

foro marble: fireplace stone

stone source: floor tile (mudroom)

renson: custom carport, custom pergola (exterior)

damien hirst: wallpaper (bedroom)

art + loom: rug

Knoll Textiles: wall fabric

robert allen: headboard fabric

brinklicht: pendant fix­tures (kitchen)

corian: countertops

piet boon: stools

wolf: oven

California Faucets: sink fittings

through lee jofa: drapery fabric (main bedroom)

c & c milano: bed fabric

céline wright: pendant fixture

beadlight: sconces

jab: chair fabric, ottoman fabric (main bedroom), chair fabric (game area)

mgs milano: outdoor shower (guest bedroom)

pelican pools: pool (terrace)

ceramiche refin: pavers

lindsay cowles: wallpaper (bedroom)

paul smith: lamp

loro piana: chair fabric

verzelloni: bench

jane churchill: bench fabric

modernica: screens (game area)

Moooi: pendant fixture

salvatori: wall tile (bathroom)

concrete collaborative: countertop stone

ann sacks: floor tile

brizo: sink fittings

&tradition: lamp (den)

fleetwood windows & doors: windows, exterior doors

rheinzink: roof

harbour outdoor: outdoor furniture

Stonhard: resin floor coating

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Verona Carpenter Architects Transforms a SoHo Loft into an Artful Home

Laura Mattioli, an art scholar, curator, and collector, found her SoHo loft, and the one two floors up that now houses the Center for Italian Modern Art, on a tip from a friend back in 2011. A native of Milan, Mattioli had been looking for a place in Manhattan where she could open the foundation to spread the word about the modern and contemporary art of her homeland, but she needed a large, open space on one level that she could easily move works in and out of for exhibitions. Her friend had heard about a handsome cast-iron building on Broome Street with full-floor apartments that were about to come on the market. Mattioli immediately booked a flight to New York and within days she had nabbed two of them—one for CIMA and one for herself.

“Usually lofts are long and narrow with light only on the two shorter sides,” she says. That’s because the buildings typically stand shoulder to shoulder. Her building, however, which dates to 1873, has a single-story Con Edison utility structure next door, so the apartments from the second floor up also have sunlight streaming in all along the eastern side. Then, too, the ceilings are high, and the layouts offer one vast space overlooking the street and well-proportioned rooms off a wide hallway toward the back. And, the location couldn’t be beat: SoHo, a 19th-century dry goods district, was colonized in the 1970’s by painters and sculptors who turned old industrial spaces into live-work lofts, leading to an explosion of galleries in the area. Although perhaps better known today as a shopping destination, the neighborhood is still home to many creators and arts organizations.

Finding an architect proved trickier than finding the space, however. The first two Mattioli hired were more interested in making a statement. But she wanted the architecture to take a back seat to the art—some inherited from her collecting father, some purchased herself. Then she discovered Irina Verona, co-principal of Verona Carpenter Architects, who understood Mattioli’s point of view. “We like the approach of ‘light architecture’ that respects the surroundings and what happens in it,” she says, speaking of the work she and co-principal Jennifer Carpenter have been doing together since founding their firm in 2017, after Verona had taken on Mattioli’s project.

Verona first completed the center, which opened in 2013. Then came Mattioli’s 4,500-square-foot apartment, which, because it was to be a home, would be “more personal,” the architect notes. But otherwise, the priorities remained largely the same—“quiet architecture for a lot of amazing pieces,” referring to both Mattioli’s art and furniture, much of it mid-century.

She left the two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath layout largely unchanged but switched up the primary bathroom and a walk-in closet for better flow and to create space for a new staircase to a storage and mechanical mezzanine (another new stair leads to a small sleeping area). Verona also added a terrace—a maneuver that required obtaining approval from the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission because SoHo is an official historic district in which changes are strictly controlled.

The three-dimensional, one-of-a-kind art in the public areas is even more riveting. Sculptures by New Yorker Barry X Ball—two standing 10 feet high and one of them inspired by Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini, also in Milan—occupy one end of the open living/dining area. On the other side of the space, furniture by Gio Ponti, Alvar Alto, and Marco Zanuso hold their own near the fireplace. In the newly enclosed kitchen, tribal masks from Mozambique and Mali stand on a counter, inches from the olive oil. High on a wall in the hallway, rough granite blocks wrapped in steel cables are hung, daringly, over an 18th-century sideboard of intricate inlaid wood from Mattioli’s childhood home. The artwork, by Giovanni Anselmo, weighs a ton, literally, and Verona was responsible for ensuring that it would stay put.

Throughout the apartment she added plywood on one or both sides of the wall studs to ensure art could be hung securely. For the wall hosting a 1-ton piece, she had the studs reinforced with metal as well as additional wood. Then, to be safe, the art was also bolted right through the wall.

verona carpenter architects: ana maria reyes; hakan westergren

jim conti lighting design: lighting consultant

northeast contracting group: terrace contractor

old structures engineering: terrace structural engineer

charles g. michel engineering: mep

think construction: general contractor

dwr: sectional (living area), chairs (dining area, kitchen), sofa (study), table (terrace)

mdf italia: table (dining area)

cassina: chair (living area)

valcucine italia: cabinets, countertops (kitchen)

wolf: cooktop

franke: sink

Add tag via side panel:

Fritz Hansen: table

porcelanosa: custom vanity (powder room)

hansgrohe: sink fittings

kravet: wallpaper (powder room, guest bedroom)

valsan: towel bar (bathroom)

flavor paper: wallpaper (bathroom, study)

through 1stdibs: bookcases, sofa (alcove)

wyeth: nesting tables (study), bench (primary bedroom)

vitsoe: shelves (study)

artemide: lamp (primary bedroom)

breakwater bay: sconces (terrace)

nuimage: awning

lualdi: doors

halo: track fixtures

element lighting: recessed fixtures

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Bates Masi + Architects and David Kleinberg Design Associates Create a Contemporary East Hampton Estate

2022 Best of Year Winner for Beach House

Well before the East End of Long Island, New York, became known for shingle-style mega mansions, its residential vernacular was the saltbox, a simple two-story volume with a gable roof that comes closer to the ground in the back than in the front. Bates Masi + Architects decided it was the right form to give a new 11,450-square-foot weekend house for a couple and their family on a large plot of land in East Hampton. The clients asked for three semi-attached buildings, one for themselves and one each for their grown children (and their future progeny). Firm principal and Interior Design Hall of Fame member Paul Masi gravitated to the saltbox shape, so that the structures would feel protected from the elements in the back but wide open in the front, where the higher rooflines accommodate two stories of windows, all offering spectacular Atlantic Ocean views.

Masi’s other big move was to arrange the three pavilions in an L-shape, which provides a sense of enclosure around the yard and swimming pool. The saltboxes are joined by glass connectors, but only at ground level; each has its own staircase to second-floor bedrooms and baths. The architect relied almost entirely on five materials: cedar, which clads most of the exterior; oak, for much of the interior; limestone, for floors, countertops, terraces, and some external walls; darkened bronze, for various kinds of trim; and, of course, glass. “We had to limit the palette because the house is so big,” Masi explains. “You lose the essence of it if there’s too much going on.” This ethos harks back to the early 1980s, when firm founder and fellow Hall of Famer Harry Bates—now 94 and retired—built modest beach houses out of whatever he could find in local lumber yards, a necessary discipline that became part of the firm’s DNA. When Masi joined Bates in 1998, he began devising ways to keep things simple even as clients demanded more and more luxury.

This couple, intending that the property becomes a family heirloom passed down from generation to generation, wanted to make sure it would last. That was fine with Masi, who thought in centuries rather than decades while designing it. “We put a lot of redundancy into the building envelope,” he explains, noting that the house is sheathed in two layers of shingle-like boards with gutters and leaders sandwiched between them to keep water away from the weathertight shell. The cedar is fastened to the structure with custom stainless-steel clips that don’t penetrate the wood, avoiding the damage nails or screws could cause the boards when they expand and contract.

The architect didn’t make things easy for himself. Exterior walls and roofs, identically clad, meet without even a whiff of an overhang. Exposing the transition from one surface to another means there’s nowhere to hide even the smallest flaw. “It’s harder than it looks to pull that off,” Masi admits. “Everything has to be perfect.” That includes four “light chimneys,” his term for a series of massive bronze-clad skylights that project through the roof. They ensure light “cascades down through the stairwells,” he continues, an effect that’s enhanced by open-tread staircases hanging on thin vertical steel-and-oak struts that descend from the second-floor ceiling. The stairwells double as ideally illuminated display areas for larger pieces of art (the couple are passionate collectors). And where the house turns a 90-degree angle, the nearly cubic 18-by-18-foot glass-enclosed connector space serves as a sculpture gallery. Delicate cedar-slat screens provide necessary shade, while large, operable windows make it easy getting lage artworks in and out of the space.

The clients brought in Interior Design Hall of Fame member David Kleinberg to furnish the house. The founding partner of David Kleinberg Design Associates, who has worked on multiple residences for the same couple before, softened the vast main living area with a custom beige wool rug. Much of the furniture is upholstered in shades of gray, including custom club chairs and sofas and a pair of French 1950’s oak lounge chairs. The seating is gathered around two Fredrikson Stallard cast-acrylic coffee tables that sit on the rug like massive chunks of ice. A patinated-bronze and polished-copper suspended light sculpture by Niamh Barry adds a note of drama overhead.

But Kleinberg has no desire to hog credit for this house. “It’s clear that architecture was the highest priority,” he notes. “The artworks were second in importance. And then came the furnishings, which were to be laid back, relaxed, and supportive of the architecture and art.” What Kleinberg doesn’t mention is that many of the pieces he has so carefully curated could well become heirlooms in their own right.

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katherine dalene weil, nick darin, nick braaksma, hung fai tang: bates masi + architects

lance duckett scott: david kleinberg design associates

orsman design: lighting consultant

steven maresca: structural engineer

men at work construction: general contractor

awg art advisory: art consultant

perry guillot: landscape consultant

maison gerard: oak lounge chairs, light sculpture (living area)

david gill gallery: coffee tables

Patterson Flynn: custom rug

joseph walsh studio: custom table (dining area)

victoria + albert: tub (bathroom)

apparatus: pendant fixtures (kitchen)

wolf: range (kitchen)

vent-a-hood: ventilation hood

sub-zero: refrigerator

bernd goeckler: glass table (sculpture gallery)

bybee stone company: limestone flooring and cladding

Keller Minimal Windows: windows and doors

Hariri & Hariri Architecture Transforms the New York Penthouse Headquarters of SIBA Corp/SIBA Residences into a Multifaceted Gem

Hariri & Hariri Architecture—the firm of Iranian sisters and Interior Design Hall of Fame members Gisue and Mojgan Hariri—began the renovation of the headquarters of SIBA Corp/SIBA Residences, a prominent gem dealer and real estate business in Manhattan’s Diamond District, in early 2020, just as COVID-19 was about to grip New York. The architects designed the 3,000-square-foot full floor during the transitional period when the SIBA office staff, like countless others across the country, started Zooming from home. Like anthro­pologists unexpectedly equipped with a telephoto lens into the lives of their subjects, the Hariris observed home environments that had become on-screen business backdrops.

COVID taught the architects what now seems obvious: People were in no rush to return to the office because they like the warmth, character, crafted touches, and creature comforts of their homes. Specialists in both residential and workplace, the sisters resolved to adapt domesticity to the penthouse site, balancing the amenities of home with office life in a building deep in Midtown’s thicket of high-rises. “Zoom confirmed what George Nelson advocated long ago,” Gisue Hariri notes: “‘The office should be a daytime living room.’”

The renovation initiated a new era and ethos for the four-generation family business. The third-generation patriarch, Sam Abram, had recently died, and his son Edward, now CEO, was relaunching the company. Three of SIBA’s separate divisions—diamond trading, real estate sales, and building management—shared the floor. Without looking like Fort Knox, the gem side of the business had to be secured away from the real estate and management spaces, which were themselves separate from each other. With multiple zones and numerous dedicated functions—reception and waiting areas, open workstations and offices, a conference room and a jewelry viewing lounge, kitchen and dining—the program presented the organizational challenge of piecing together an intricate puzzle. The existing office looked like a leftover period set from “The Honeymooners.” Cubicles and rooms were grafted onto each other higgledy-piggledy under harsh fluorescents set in a water-damaged dropped ceiling. A large safe was strapped down like an electric chair. The whole place required a gut renovation.

The unsalvageable maze, however, hid two assets. The space had good infrastructure—a wraparound terrace ringed the entire floor, which offered unobstructed, heart-of-the-city views. Then, in and around the principal office, the architects discovered numerous modernist prints and silkscreens that the company had quietly collected, hung up, and left in place for decades, as forgotten as old wallpaper. To their surprise, the Hariris were dealing with a portfolio that included works by Josef Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, and Louise Nevelson. New pieces, including ones by Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Alexander Calder, were added to the mix, and the trove became a vehicle that helped the two sisters infuse the project with color and character.

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Aiming for a daytime living-room effect, the Hariris avoided a systematic, gridded, modular layout. Instead, the floor is organized episodically along a circuit leading to an unfolding sequence of spaces, each highlighting art or special seating. The unique turns in the plan camouflaged the harsh fact that a corridor, for example, might function as a security lock bordered by bulletproof glass. The Hariri team included pockets as socializing zones for passing office chats and break-out moments. They sited the jewelry viewing lounge among the first rooms, beyond which lies a small open-plan pool of workstations for real estate management surrounded by a perimeter of private offices.

Improvements in technology over the last several decades facilitated domestication. Thanks to the computer, the architects could reduce the number of chilly, metal file cabinets to a minimum. A new ceiling system of parallel aluminum slats set wide enough apart to accommodate sprinklers let them raise the ceiling from 8 to nearly 10 feet. Compact HVAC equipment replaced large, antiquated units that colonized the outdoor terrace, allowing for an alfresco dining setup plus a meditation garden. Contemporary window frames gave each opening a clear view, turning the urban skyline into a sequence of spectacular pictures.

But beyond technology, the Hariris deployed architecture’s traditional tool-set—materials, scale, lighting, and simplicity—to make the HQ homelike. They covered metal access panels with rift-cut oak. Etched glass between perimeter offices and the open work area softly radiate natural light to the landlocked interior. They dimensionalized the floor with patterned carpet tile that creates the illusion of depth, its pile inviting staff to kick off their shoes. Overall, the spaces were kept intimate, with clean planes and edges that defer to the art. The walls, mostly painted white or gray, have the visual clarity of a gallery.

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At the beginning of the commission, the architects told their clients that the goal was to build the analogue of a jewel—“something light, airy, and tactile,” Gisue Hariri says, “something small, precious, and special, where every turn is unique.” She and her sister crafted that idea right at the front door by chamfering the reception desk like a precious cut stone—its faceted, sculptural quality a trademark of their work. “From early on, we’ve collected rocks and studied geological and crystal formations, fascinated by the abstract, geometric, asymmetrical forms derived from nature, which are also apparent in both Persian and modern Western architecture,” the architect adds. But even more than a built metaphor, the diamond at the door sets the stage for the multifaceted gem of an environment beyond.

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hariri & hariri architecture: bieinna ham; kyuhun kim; chris whiteside; maria digaetango-rodriguez

blondie’s treehouse: landscape consultant.

lighting workshop: lighting consultant.

robert silman associates structural engineers: structural engineer

skyline engineering: special inspection engineer.

ip group: mep

napoleon contracting corp.: woodwork.

icon interiors: general contractor.

Janus et Cie: chairs, table (terrace)

expert welding gates: custom railing

bendheim: etched glass panels (open work area)

knoll: workstations (open work area), lounge chair (office)

vibia: pendant fixtures (waiting area)

bernhardt design: table/chair (waiting area), sofa (jewelry lounge)

spinneybeck: sofa upholstery (jewelry lounge)

dwr: pillows

herman miller: executive chair, task chairs (office)

kohler co.: sink fittings (rest­room)

focal point: ceiling fixtures (kitchen)

JUlien: sink

kwc: sink fittings

wolf: cooktop

miele: oven

Blu Dot: credenza

mosa: floor tile

Interface: carpet tile

amerlux; coronet lighting: lighting

armstrong: acoustic ceiling panels

b+n industries: aluminum slats

c.r. laurence co.: door pulls

kilroy architectural windows: windows

evensonbest: furniture supplier

benjamin moore & co.: paint.