Charles Gwathmey - Triangle Modernist Houses - America's Largest Archive of Residential Modernist Design

Enjoy browsing, but unless otherwise noted, these houses are private property and closed to the public -- so don't go tromping around uninvited.

With Richard Meier

CHARLES GWATHMEY, FAIA (1938-2009)

Charles Gwathmey was a native of Charlotte, NC. After his family moved to New York City, he attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Art, graduating in 1956. He studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University, receiving a Master of Architecture degree in 1962 at the latter. At Yale, he won both The William Wirt Winchester Fellowship as outstanding graduate and a Fulbright Grant.

In 1964 he named his firm Charles Gwathmey, Architect and rose to fame when he designed a house and studio for his parents in Amagansett, NY. Gwathmey was not a licensed architect when he built that house. When he did take the professional licensing exam, he was surprised to see a multiple-choice question on the test that asked "Which of these is the organic house?" The choices included a picture of the house he designed for his parents. He wanted to answer that it was his, but in order to pass the exam he chose Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House. He knew that was the answer they wanted. He passed.

By 1966, Gwathmey went into partnership with Richard Henderson to form Gwathmey and Henderson, Architects. In 1968, the firm became Gwathmey Henderson and Siegel Architects. After Henderson's departure in 1970, the now-iconic Gwathmey Siegel & Associates was established.

In the decades since, Gwathmey has been honored with the Brunner Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1970) and elected to the Academy of Fellows (1976). In 1983, he won the Medal of Honor from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 1985, he received the first Yale Alumni Arts Award from the Yale School of Architecture. Three years later, the Guild Hall Academy of Arts awarded Gwathmey its Lifetime Achievement Medal in Visual Arts. In 1990 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Society of Architects.

From 1965 through 1991, Gwathmey taught at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Texas, and the University of California at Los Angeles. He was Davenport Professor (1983 and 1999) and Bishop Professor (1991) at Yale, and the Eliot Noyes Visiting Professor at Harvard University (1985). In the spring of 2005, he served as the William A. Bernoudy Resident in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome.

Charles Gwathmey was one of the highly lauded "New York Five" included in a Museum of Modern Art exhibition and subsequent book in 1969. His most famous commercial design is the 1992 renovation/addition of Frank Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York, left. He has been a partner in Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects since 1968. According to Paul Goldberger, Gwathmey "was almost alone among first-class architects in making houses a central part of his practice, even when he had plenty of bigger, more lucrative projects."

Additional Resources:

1980 Interview * 2000 Interview with Charlie Rose

His only North Carolina buildings are the 1994 Rubenstein-Silvers Hillel Center at Duke University, the UNC-Charlotte School of Architecture (with Ferebee Walters), and the 2002 Louise Cameron Wells Museum in Wilmington, shown below.

1964 - His first house commission, The Miller Residence, on Fire Island, NY.

1966 - The Robert and Rosalie Gwathmey Residence and Studio, 122 Bluff Road, Amagansett NY on Long Island. Gwathmey became a sensation doing these house and studio buildings for his parents. Costing $35,000, the Gwathmey houses attracted throngs of visitors and was consistently named one of the most influential buildings of the modern era. Built by John Caramagna. In 2001, Gwathmey inherited the house from his mother and moved in. He began a renovation that included covering the original concrete floor with marble. Stairs and dining room photos by Scott Francis/Esto.

1968 - The Joe Sedacca Residence, 19 Northwest Landing Road, Northwest Harbor NY on Long Island. 1100 square feet on three acres. Sold by Sedacca to current owner Paul A. Amador in 1993.

1968 - The Straus Residence, Purchase NY. Won an AIA Honor Award.

1969 - The Goldberg Residence, Manchester CT.

1969 - The Cooper House, Orleans MA. Left photo by Bill Maris.

1971- The Steel Residences I and II, Bridgehampton NY.
Two houses - a plan similar to that he did for his parents.

1970 - The Faye Dunaway Apartment, New York NY. Top b/w photos by Ezra Stoller/Esto.

1970 - The Eskilson Residence, Roxbury CT (unbuilt).

1971 - The Tolan Residence, Amagansett NY.

1973 - The Breslow Apartment, aka the New York Apartment, New York NY. Designed for a writer and his wife. Bottom photo by Tom Yee.

19721 - The Marshall Cogan Residence, five acres at East Hampton, Long Island, a rectangular pavilion intersected with three ramps and a living area overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Photos by Ezra Stoller/Esto.

1973 - The Elia-Bash House, Califon NJ. Strangely, no live photos of this house seem to exist. Was it built??

1973 - The Cohn Residence, Amagansett NY. An ocean dune site with a steep slope to the cul-de-sac access road. Won a AIANY Design Award in 1974. Photos by David Franzen. Commissioned 1972.

1975 - The Sagner House, South Orange NJ. Unbuilt. Commissioned 1973.

1973 - The David Geffen Residence, Malibu CA. Unbuilt.

1977 - The Buettner Residence, Sloatsburg NY. Commissioned 1974.

1976 - The Charof House, Montauk NY. Commissioned 1974.

1975 - The Unger Apartment, New York NY.

1977 - The Harry Kislevetz Residence, 10 Lott Avenue, Westhampton NY on Long Island. Left photo by Norman McGrath. Commissioned 1974. Built from within a shell of a Spanish-style house.

1976 - The Haupt Residence, Amagansett NY. Top right photo by Marvin McGrath.

1976 - The Weitz House in Quogue NY on Long Island.

1977 - The William and Esther Benenson House, Rye NY. Won a AIANY Design Award.
Was a 1980 Architectural Record house.

1977 - The Swid Apartment I, New York NY.

1977 - The Crowley Residence, Greenwich CT.

1977 - The Geffen Apartment, New York NY.

1978 - The Lloyd Taft House, Drake Road in the Indian Hill area of Cincinnati OH. Sold to the Olson family. Minor alterations by Carl Strauss Associates around 1990 and by Stewart Shillito Maxwell, Jr. later in the 1990s.

1979 - The Hines Residence, Martha's Vineyard MA. Unbuilt.

1979 - The François de Menil House, 19 Crestwood Drive, Houston TX.

1979 - The Block Residence, Wilmington NC. Unbuilt.

1979 - The Viereck Residence, Amagansett NY.

1981 - The Arango Apartment, New York NY.

1981 - The deMenil Residence, Santa Monica CA.

1981 - The deMenil Residence, New York NY. Unbuilt.

1982 - The Steinberg Apartment, New York NY.

1983 - The Francois deMenil Residence (aka Toad Hall), 428 Further Lane, East Hampton North NY. 10000 square feet. Commissioned in 1979. Sold for $8M in 1988 to current owner Larry Gagosian. Renovated by Gwathmey in 1990.

1983 - The Steven Spielberg Apartment, New York NY. 2500 square feet.

1983 - The Swid Apartment II, New York NY.

1984 - The Sagner Residence, Essex Fells NJ. Unbuilt.

1986 - The Gimelstob Residence, Harding Township, New Vernon NJ. Photos by Norman McGrath.

1987 - The John R. and Julia Opel Residence, 297 Adirondack Drive, Shelburne VT. Commissioned 1985. 7000 square feet on 12 acres. Most photos by Richard Bryant/Arcaid. Bottom two photos by Peter Close. The Opels sold it in 2007. Unbelievably, the new owner destroyed it in 2010.

1988 - The Garey House, Kent CT. 4000 square feet on nine acres. Ambrosino, DePinto & Schmieder were the Consulting Engineers. 5000 square feet. Commissioned 1983.

1988 - The Steven Spielberg Residence, East Hampton NY. 5000 square feet on six acres.
Photo by Richard Bryant. Commissioned 1985.

1989 - The Robert Steinberg Residence, Lily Pond Lane, Apaquogue, East Hampton NY. Bottom photo by Steven Brooke. Commissioned 1986. 8500 square feet on four acres. Sold to Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks.

1990 - The Cary F. Staller Residence, Old Field NY.

1992 - The Koppelman/Sobel Apartment, New York NY.

1993 - The Jeffrey Katzenberg Residence, aka the Oceanfront Residence, 22350 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu CA. Top photo is the view from the Pacific Coast Highway, next photo from the beach. Commissioned 1988. 11000 square feet.

1994 - The Thomas and Christina Bechtler Residence, aka the Zumikon Residence, Rigistrasse and Rigiweg Roads, Zumikon Switzerland. Overlooks Lake Zurich. Commissioned 1990. 10225 square feet.

1994 - The Chen Residence, Taipei Taiwan. Commissioned 1990. A massive 40,000 square feet. Unbuilt.

1997 - The Jerry and Ilene Kosberg Residence, aka the San Onofre Residence, 1600 San Onofre Drive, Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles CA. Consulting Electrical Engineers: Athans Enterprises. Commissioned 1993. 18000 square feet on 1.5 acres. Kosberg also owns 1571 Casale down the hill next door.

1997 - The Michael Dell Residence, aka Villa Austin, aka Hilltop House, 3400 Toro Canyon Road, Austin TX. Overlooks Lake Austin. The complex is 33,000 square feet, has 8 bedrooms and bathrooms, 13 half baths, a conference room, a restaurant quality kitchen, an exercise room, an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, cabanas, and a five-level terraced lawn. One of the most expensive homes in Texas. On 85 acres. Commissioned 1993.

2000 - The Ronald Meyer Residence, aka the Malibu Residence, 27600 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu CA. Commissioned 1993. The top photo was an early 1990's design that was scaled back for a second, smaller version actually built.

2001 - The Arie and Rebecka Belldegrun Residence, aka the Bel Air Residence, 811 Strada Vecchia Road, Los Angeles CA. 15,000 square feet. Top photo by Scott Francis/Esto.

2003 - The Belvedere Residence, aka At the Water's Edge, 445 Belvedere Avenue, Belvedere Tiburon, CA. Photos by Mark Schwartz. Four bedrooms, one elevator. For sale in 2006-2007, $18 million.

2006 - The Mitchell Rales Residence, aka Glenstone, a few miles northwest of Potomac MD. Operated as a private art museum. Bottom photo by Scott Francis/Esto. Structural Engineers: Severud Associates Consulting Engineers P.C. Contractor: Lifecraft, Inc. Civil Engineering: A. Morton Thomas and Associates, Inc.

2007 - The 6D Ranch Lake House, aka the 6D Home, Commons Ford Ranch
Park Road, northwest of Austin TX. 6380 square feet.

2009 - M-1 Apartment

2010 - The Three Trees Residence, Aspen CO.

Sources include: The New York Times, Virtual Globetrotting, AIANY, Gwathmey Siegel, Blockshopper,
In Search of Clarity: The Architecture of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects.

Other Gwaltney Projects	LOCATION	YEAR	STATUS
Jeffrey Katzenburg	Deer Valley UT		Completed
Jerry Seinfeld Residence	??	??	??
Saint Barthélemy Villa	Saint Barthélemy, French West Indies	2009	Construction
Ruthy's Way	Northeast Harbor, ME	2010	Construction
Wayward Point	Sag Harbor, NY	2010	Design
East Hampton Residence	East Hampton, NY	2011	Design
MS4610 Cabin	Aspen, CO	2011	Design