{"id":1030033,"date":"2026-08-28T19:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030033\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T19:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:05:00","slug":"julio-kaufmans-1960-pyramid-house-in-the-fire-island-pines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030033\/","title":{"rendered":"Julio Kaufman\u2019s 1960 Pyramid House in the Fire Island Pines"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n The glass face of the pyramid has uninterrupted views. The lower level has three bedrooms and an office, arrayed around a pool.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

The distinctive modernist homes that started going up on Fire Island in the 1960s became useful landmarks for visitors. There\u2019s the TV House<\/a>, Lincoln Center<\/a>, and plenty of Horace Giffords<\/a>, many of them visible from the beachfront or the shaded paths that run between lots. Then there\u2019s the Pyramid House<\/a> \u2014 one of the more uncommon silhouettes on Sail Walk, which appeared in 1960 and has been improved by a series of creative owners who have added guestrooms, a pool, and other luxuries. In 2018, the real-estate agent Glenn Rice was strolling<\/a> on the beach and noticed the place. He knocked on the door, toured through, and worked out a handshake deal with the owner for a $1.325 million sale. Rice had a side hustle as a vintage dealer<\/a> and brought in <\/a>plenty of pieces from the same era, including 1950s sofas by Peter Hvidt and Orla M\u00f8lgaard-Nielsen, a pair of 1970s blue suede armchairs, and benches from France with colorful bases. Pricey summer rentals funded a renovation to add central air and upgrade the saltwater pool. But for the rest of the year, Rice simply lived there, working in an office off an 800-square-foot primary suite and taking dips in the pool or the ocean outside his door. \u201cWorking from home here is a joy,\u201d he wrote in his rental listing<\/a>, which offers the home for around $1,000 a night in the summer. The highlight: endless views through the glass wall on one side of the home\u2019s main, pyramidal living space, which made the ocean feel so close he could sometimes spot whales.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The great room at sunrise.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

That view was the inspiration behind the pyramidal shape. As architect Julio Kaufman told<\/a> a local reporter, the pyramid allowed a visitor to \u201cstand in the middle of the living room and be able to look everywhere on the island.\u201d He built the home in 1960, when the site extended back to the bay on the north, the ocean to the south, and the seashore that would soon become<\/a> a national park to the east. Kaufman was a Jewish \u00e9migr\u00e9 from Buenos Aires who had clients in Manhattan and had been commissioned to build another house on the island for shoe designer Danny Berk. He would go on to design two more island landmarks \u2014 the Botel<\/a>, a simple, unpretentious motel off the island\u2019s yacht club, and The Co-ops,<\/a> a development of 100 units connected by their zigzag roofline.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The home is at the western edge of the Fire Island National Seashore.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

His client for the Pyramid House was a great-nephew of J.P. Morgan\u2019s from a branch of the family less focused on finance. John Goodwin\u2019s relatives included artists<\/a>, collectors<\/a>, and an architect<\/a> who helped design the Museum of Modern Art, and Goodwin wrote novels, children\u2019s books, and short stories; his most famous was \u201cThe Cocoon,\u201d a 1946 ghost story<\/a> about a bug-obsessed boy. Friends included Christopher Isherwood, who describes<\/a> \u201cJohnny\u201d Goodwin in diaries as skinny, blond, and handsome despite a nose that \u201cturns up as though sniffing a chronically nasty smell.\u201d As Isherwood recounted, Goodwin loved to throw lavish, raucous parties in his tastefully turned-out homes<\/a> everywhere from Santa Monica to the Antilles, where guests included Isherwood\u2019s ex, the model Billy Harris, along with Paul Cadmus and Tennesee Williams. When Goodwin wasn\u2019t hosting, he was traveling through Africa and Asia and picking up pieces that \u201cglowed\u201d for him, as he told one curator.<\/p>\n

A long line of stylish owners has adored Goodwin\u2019s taste in architecture, expanding on the house\u2019s basic form by adding luxuries. Kaufman\u2019s design was eventually raised to add more bedroom space below and a wrap-around deck above. A major overhaul in the 2000s replaced the shingled wall of Kaufman\u2019s original pyramid with an I.M. Pei\u2013inspired wall of glass and steel and added two guest rooms with a shared bathroom between them on the other side of the lot \u2014 along with a new saltwater pool. Those three new rooms are linked, but from the exterior they look like three distinctive, ten-by-ten-foot homes, each capped with its own pyramidal roofline. The idea came from architect Hal Hayes, who was inspired by <\/strong>the Great Pyramid of Giza, where a pharaoh built <\/strong>a row of smaller pyramids alongside it for his queens, as Hayes told the Fire Island Pines Historical Society. His client, the writer Paul Rudnick, \u201cloved the idea\u201d in part because he had just written The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told<\/a> \u2014 his 1998 retelling of the Bible. <\/strong>Rudnick sold the house\u00a0in 2013 for just under $1 million to Jeff Mahshie, a Halston designer<\/a> who started making clothes for Broadway, and won<\/a> the Tony this year for Fallen Angels.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Three smaller pyramids hold two guest rooms on either side of a shared bathroom.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

Rice, who has owned the home for eight years, has floated the idea of selling before \u2014 asking<\/a> $6.5 million in 2022. But he\u2019s bringing the price down to $3.3 million, and broker Esteban Gomez says Rice has put \u201ca meaningful amount\u201d into the house over the past year, even glazing that immense triangle of a window \u2014 keeping the space cool and energy costs down. The pyramid might look a bit kooky from the outside, but inside it makes sense, Gomez says. \u201cInstead of feeling like you\u2019re sitting in a big box with windows, the sky actually becomes part of the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The wall of glass was added in a 2006 renovation by the architect Hal Hayes.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A dining table beneath the main window. Rice added new glazing and central air.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The pyramid was renovated to become a single great room with a living area, dining space, and open kitchen.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The kitchen in the great room.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Stairs lead down from the main living space into the primary suite or down to the pool deck. From left: <\/strong>Photo: Daniel RodriguezPhoto: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

\n Stairs lead down from the main living space into the primary suite or down to the pool deck. From top: <\/strong>Photo: Daniel RodriguezPhoto: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The primary suite is 800 square feet and has a view onto the dunes.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n At the other end, there\u2019s a sitting area and steps which lead directly up to the pool.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A screen slides closed, protecting views. Other perks include the working fireplace and built-in shelves.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The primary bath has a rain shower. From left: <\/strong>Photo: Daniel RodriguezPhoto: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

\n The primary bath has a rain shower. From top: <\/strong>Photo: Daniel RodriguezPhoto: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The sitting area off the primary suite leads up to the pool, which was added in the 2006 renovation for writer Paul Rudnick by architect Hal Hayes.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Looking back at the main house from the pool.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n On the lower level of the main house, a den or home office looks over the pool.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Across the pool, architect Hal Hayes added two more guest rooms and a bathroom that he envisioned as smaller pyramids fit for the \u201cqueens\u201d of a pharaoh.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The center of the three pyramidal out-buildings holds a shared bathroom, accessed by guest rooms on either side.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The guest rooms take after the main house without directly copying the interiors. Each is an identical ten-by-ten foot miniature house.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A view of the house at twilight.
\n Photo: Daniel Rodriguez\n <\/p>\n

Sign Up for the Curbed Newsletter<\/p>\n

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines.<\/p>\n

Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Notice<\/a> and to receive email correspondence from us.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The glass face of the pyramid has uninterrupted views. The lower level has three bedrooms and an office,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1030034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,41007,107747,184949,1033,171,104668,411899,411900,411896,19272,124817,55654,411898,411897,41008,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1030033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-buy-it-for-the-architecture","tag-cedar","tag-christopher-isherwood","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-fire-island","tag-gay-culture","tag-gay-history","tag-julio-kaufman","tag-lgbtq-history","tag-modernism","tag-on-the-market","tag-paul-rudnick","tag-the-pines","tag-the-real-estate","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117174703992896512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}