Gravity-Defying Architecture

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The Story 🗞️

Andrew Geller’s gravity-defying architecture

When you think of Hamptons architecture, you might picture traditional homes with gray shingles and white shutters, all marked by uninspired symmetry. But the late modernist architect Andrew Geller had a different vision. His unconventional, affordable, and cheerful Long Island beachfront residences are some of the most striking summer homes you'll ever see.

Geller's career began at the industrial design firm Loewy and Associates, where he was tasked with interpreting the "typical American house" for the 1959 American National Exposition in Moscow. His ingenious design, which bisected a full-scale prototype home, was so innovative that it sparked the infamous "Kitchen Debates" between Premier Khrushchev and Vice President Nixon.

This conversation led to the Leisurama project, a design for a prefabricated vacation home created in response to the Soviet claim that the average American couldn't afford a second home. The Leisurama homes became so popular that one was fully installed on the ninth floor of Macy's in New York City. At least 200 of these mass-market homes were built in Montauk, NY.

At the same time, Geller worked on 15 "summer-use playhouses" for private commissions. Each of these homes, located along the Hamptons coastline, explored the form of the cube, using a minimalist structural system to create expressive, rhythmic designs that reflected their inhabitants' personalities.

The first of these projects was commissioned by Elizabeth Reese, the public relations director at Loewy. The Reese House, designed for sunbathing and meditation, took the form of an abstract A-frame. Its geometric design and unique ability to blend with nature while providing a modern retreat sparked widespread interest and inspired countless imitations.

Other unique designs followed. By rotating the rectangular house around the axis of its long edge, Geller developed a signature style that was both abstract and aerodynamic, innovatively responding to the expressionism of the times and the environment of the island.

Though few of Andrew Geller's low-budget, low-maintenance minimalist homes still stand, their images preserve a key moment in American residential architecture.

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