{"id":70139,"date":"2025-07-17T14:48:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/70139\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T14:48:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T14:48:34","slug":"a-modern-1970s-east-hampton-house-by-r-scott-bromley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/70139\/","title":{"rendered":"A Modern 1970s East Hampton House by R. Scott Bromley"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n The back of 4 Baiting Hollow Road in East Hampton.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

The architect R. Scott Bromley<\/a> is known for beach houses \u2014 specifically, the 100 or so homes that he helped design across Fire Island, which play off the work of his design hero, Horace Gifford<\/a>. But he actually started building vacation houses in the Hamptons back when he still had a day job working for Philip Johnson and before he broke out on his own and made his name co-designing Studio 54 in 1977.<\/a> Bromley\u2019s first house in the Hamptons \u2014 a two-story box of cedar and sliding glass doors that faced a simple rectangle of pool \u2014 is now almost unrecognizable<\/a>, thanks to a 2005 renovation. The second, on the other hand, is still pure Bromley<\/a> \u2014 an unfussy playpen of clean lines, natural materials, and unexpected moments of fun, like a catwalk over the living room and a peephole window into a bathroom. \u201cI was a baby architect,\u201d Bromley told me last week from his home in Fire Island (a Gifford restoration<\/a>), \u201cbut that house would stand up today as a beach house I would design.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Bromley\u2019s first house in East Hampton, from 1965, before a 2005 renovation.
\n Photo: Bromley Caldari Architects\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n 4 Baiting Hollow Road, from 1972.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

Now 86, Bromley has outlived the couple who commissioned him to build 4 Baiting Hollow Road<\/a> \u2014Joseph Roman, an interior designer<\/a>, died in 2001, and Whitney Chase died in 1988. Bromley remembers they wanted a grand, two-story living area and a dining room separate from the kitchen \u2014\u00a0requirements for excellent parties. He built them a set of interlocking cedar and glass boxes, whose exposed joinery and simple lines are very much in the Gifford style at a grander scale. (It was East Hampton, after all.)\u00a0The front entrance leads to a foyer, which opens out into that two-story living area with bedrooms above it.<\/p>\n

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\n A disciple of Horace Gifford, Bromley lined up exposed cedar planks to form a clean, simple pattern.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

The showstopper is a grid of glass windows, their square panes joined with a cross-hatch of cedar two-by-fours, which continues its grid onto the ceiling. The floorboards are set at 45-degree angle, a Bromley innovation that he tried after realizing he disliked walking barefoot along the grout-y lines of bare boards. \u201cI love walking across boards, but I don\u2019t like walking up and down them, particularly.\u201d A visitor taking the obvious track through the room \u2014 from the entrance off the foyer to the sliding glass doors out to the pool in the opposite corner \u2014 moves against the stripes, and the pattern continues outdoors, where the same angles frame the pool.<\/p>\n

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\n Steps off the living room (left) lead down to the pool, where the boards continue at the same angle.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

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\n Off the kitchen is a breakfast room that leads out to a deck.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

The house is composed of nestled boxes, but the dining room and the breakfast nook each have curved walls that encircle large tables. Upstairs, both of these semicircles are capped with private balconies: One extends off the home\u2019s original primary suite, the other off the larger guest room. In 2003, Bromley added a third semicircle to the house, at the end of an addition on the ground floor. (The current owners, who chose to remain private, added a fourth bedroom downstairs with its own private deck and en-suite bathroom.) Fans of Gifford\u2019s sexy voyeurism and open showers will see his influence in the bathrooms: A bath off a guest room has a shower in the center, capped with a skylight. A bath on the ground floor has peekaboo windows that face the front walkway.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Off the guest bedroom with a balcony is an en-suite bathroom with a shower at the center that sits under a skylight.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

Agent Esteban Gomez<\/a> says the house channels \u201cBromley\u2019s sense of humor,\u201d which is not exactly standard for this posh nook, now known as Georgica Estates. \u201cIt\u2019s so out of the norm,\u201d Gomez says. \u201cIt feels like a house from the Pines that was brought over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price:<\/strong> $7.375 million<\/p>\n

Specs: <\/strong>4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms<\/p>\n

Extras: <\/strong>Pool, front and back deck, two-car garage, office, basement, shed<\/p>\n

5-minute driving radius: <\/strong>East Hampton Main Beach, The Hedges Inn, Red Horse Market<\/p>\n

Listed by:<\/strong> Esteban Gomez<\/a> and Lori Schiaffino, Compass<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Unlike other houses in Georgica Estates, the house isn\u2019t surrounded by massive hedges.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The walk up the drive to the main entrance gives visitors a peek through slim, rectangular windows (left) into the downstairs bathroom.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The front door leads into a foyer.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The view from inside the entrance. Stairs lead down to a basement and up to three of the bedrooms. Ahead is the main living area.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The floorboards follow a 45-degree angle, leading from the entrance of the room to a sliding glass door down to the pool.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A look back at the house.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The house sits on 1.4 acres on a corner lot, with mature trees that block out views of the neighbors in megamansions.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A deck off a downstairs bedroom (right) looks over the pool.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Off the great room is a formal dining room.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Bromley remembered that the original owners, Joe Roman and Whitney Chase, wanted a separate dining room to entertain.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The dining room has a slim view of the pool and a back deck.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A kitchen on the other side of the dining room has been updated, but its bones are recognizable to Bromley, who remembered this was his first time putting an island in the kitchen, which he repeated.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Off the breakfast nook is a small informal sitting area.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The view of the deck off the breakfast room from the back. To the right is the wing with the semi-circular dining room. Above it is the primary bedroom with a private balcony.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The stairs lead to a catwalk over the living area (right).
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The view down from the catwalk includes a sliver of the pool.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The original primary bedroom is off the catwalk and has an en-suite bathroom, two closets, and a private balcony.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n One of the two original guest bedrooms upstairs also has a balcony.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The downstairs bedroom that Bromley added in 2003 is now the largest, but it is still designed to blend in. It has a back deck and a semi-circular sitting area.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The house is on a corner lot that\u2019s 1.4 acres and includes a separate two-car garage, a shed, and landscaped gardens.
\n Photo: Lena Yaremenko\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The house from above.
\n Photo: Harris Allen\n <\/p>\n

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