Beach Houses: Andrew Geller

by Alastair Gordon

The Bra. The Box Kite. The Cat. The Milk Carton. The Reclining Picasso. These are the playful names given to the eccentric beach houses of Andrew Geller. Built in the 1950s and 1960s, these whimsical vacation homes reflected the idea of summer leisure for a generation more concerned with fun on the beach than ostentatious display. For clients in the Hamptons, the Jersey shore, and in New England, Geller built dozens of houses, most of wood and most on modest budgets. Geller, who worked with Raymond Loewy and directed the design of such modernist landmarks as the Lever House in New York, combined a modern interest in light, breeze, and functional living with playful form-making. These spirited houses, many shown here for the first time through vintage photographs and drawings, still delight today and will inspire anyone interested in beach house living.

Genres: Art

127 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Alastair Gordon is an award-winning critic, curator, cultural historian and author whose work bridges art, architecture and the environment. For over twenty years he wrote for The New York Times and later became Contributing Editor for WSJ. Magazine, where he also created the popular “Wall-to-Wall” design blog. His essays have appeared in Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Le Monde and Dwell, among others. The author of more than twenty-eight books, including Weekend Utopia, Naked Airport and Theater of Shopping, Gordon also co-founded Gordon de Vries Studio, an imprint devoted to books on the human environment. He has taught at Harvard University and received multiple honors for excellence in architectural criticism.

Reviews

[Kamakana · Rating 4 out of 5]

170419: slice of the fantasy fifties, when america was endless promise under desperately disregarded fears of atomic war... when middle class could afford vacation homes on the beaches not too far from the city, when vacations were not just status displayed, when architecture in the new world was kind of the predecessor of postmodernists... everything is sign, joke, self-referring, not claustrophobic theory of those modernist europeans...

[jw468 · Rating 4 out of 5]

May 30, 2014

This engaging book introduces the reader to Andrew Geller and his idiosyncratic beach houses. Coverage of the houses includes written explanations, drawings of virtually all types, photographs of the houses under construction and after completion, and other documentation, such as letters, etc. The introduction to Andrew Geller includes a brief biography, photographs, and examples of his other work.

August 8, 2014

There's an excellent documentary that complements the book nicely posted on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZBLb....