Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction
Expanded Edition
By Christopher Bascom Rawlins. Foreword by Alastair Gordon. Afterword by Charles Renfro.
Featuring new houses, many additional photographs and a new afterword, Fire Island Modernist offers a fascinating look at the history and culture of this "gay paradise" through the life and work of Horace Gifford
As the 1960s became the "Sixties," architect Horace Gifford executed a remarkable series of beach houses that transformed the terrain and culture of New York’s Fire Island. Growing up on the beaches of Florida, Gifford forged a deep connection with coastal landscapes. Pairing this sensitivity with jazzy improvisations on modernist themes, he perfected a sustainable modernism in cedar and glass that was as attuned to natural landscapes as to our animal natures. Gifford’s serene 1960s pavilions provided refuge from a hostile world, while his exuberant post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS masterpieces orchestrated bacchanals of liberation. Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift once spurned Hollywood limos for the rustic charm of Fire Island’s boardwalks. Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s here. Diane von Fürstenberg showed off her latest wrap dresses to an audience that included Halston, Giorgio Sant’ Angelo, Calvin Klein and Geoffrey Beene. Today, such a roster evokes the aloof, gated compounds of the Hamptons or Malibu. But these celebrities lived in modestly scaled homes alongside middle-class vacationers, all with equal access to Fire Island’s natural beauty. Blending cultural and architectural history, Fire Island Modernist ponders a fascinating era through an overlooked architect whose life, work and colorful milieu trace the operatic arc of a lost generation, and still resonate with artistic and historical import. First published in 2013 and long out of print, this iconic book returns in an expanded edition, including five new featured houses, drawings of previously unseen homes, new photography, updated scholarship and a new afterword by Charles Renfro.
This book was published in conjunction with Gordon De Vries Studio
Featured image is reproduced from 'Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Wallpaper*
Jonathan Bell
[An] essential overview of one of modernism’s most intriguing microcosms.
Cultured
Colin King
The infamous queer enclave hidden on a barrier island is home to some of the most impressive modernist architecture on the East Coast. [...] This book, by Pines historian Christopher Rawlins, documents many of Gifford’s most celebrated works in Fire Island Pines....
in stock $65.00
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Wednesday, April 30, from 6–8 PM, Rizzoli Bookstore presents the NYC launch of the new, expanded edition of Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction, published by Metropolis Books and Gordon De Vries Studio. Featuring new houses, many additional photographs and a new Afterword by architect Charles Renfro, the expanded Fire Island Modernist offers a fascinating look at the history and culture of this "gay paradise" through the life and work of Horace Gifford. Author Christopher Rawlins will be in conversation with Charles Renfro, followed by a signing. Drinks and refreshments will be served. continue to blog
Saturday, February 15, from 9–10 AM, Palm Springs Modernism Week presents "Boys in the Sand: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction," a talk with architect and historian Christopher Rawlins, whose new, expanded edition of the bestselling 2013 book, Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction, releases in April 2025. For lucky attendees of the talk, advance copies will be available for signing! Order tickets here. continue to blog
Featured spreads are from the new, expanded edition of Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction, updating Christopher Rawlins’ 2013 architecture classic with new houses, many additional photographs and a new Afterword by architect and Horace Gifford homeowner Charles Renfro. “Years before I purchased a modest Horace Gifford house in the Pines, I would cry every time I left the island,” Renfro writes. “They were tears of joy tinged with sadness and anxiety. Joy because I no doubt had an exhilarating and unscripted experience that I didn’t think was possible. Sadness because I didn’t know when I would feel so free and alive again (even if I was planning to come out the following weekend). And anxiety that all the living and loving that was packed into 48 hours wasn’t quite real. From the ferry, the sunset would dry the tears and bring me down to earth, forcing me to acknowledge that the Pines was indeed real, if completely unique.… As with modernism generally, Gifford’s houses were honest and simple. They were unadorned but elegant boxes that commune and conspire with nature, allowing the exterior setting to become the interior adornment. They enlisted nature as a theatrical partner: flowers come and go, leaves sprout and grow, tides rise and fall, all framed or revealed in the simple gestures of his houses. The beauty, the fragility, and even the hedonism of our lives is mirrored in the nature that surrounds our houses. With Gifford, we both become ourselves and become part of nature. We are validated in ways we could have never fathomed. Hence the tears.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 12 in. / 224 pgs / 181 color / 107 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $95 GBP £55.00 ISBN: 9781881616993 PUBLISHER: Metropolis Books AVAILABLE: 4/29/2025 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction Expanded Edition
Published by Metropolis Books. By Christopher Bascom Rawlins. Foreword by Alastair Gordon. Afterword by Charles Renfro.
Featuring new houses, many additional photographs and a new afterword, Fire Island Modernist offers a fascinating look at the history and culture of this "gay paradise" through the life and work of Horace Gifford
As the 1960s became the "Sixties," architect Horace Gifford executed a remarkable series of beach houses that transformed the terrain and culture of New York’s Fire Island. Growing up on the beaches of Florida, Gifford forged a deep connection with coastal landscapes. Pairing this sensitivity with jazzy improvisations on modernist themes, he perfected a sustainable modernism in cedar and glass that was as attuned to natural landscapes as to our animal natures. Gifford’s serene 1960s pavilions provided refuge from a hostile world, while his exuberant post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS masterpieces orchestrated bacchanals of liberation. Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift once spurned Hollywood limos for the rustic charm of Fire Island’s boardwalks. Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s here. Diane von Fürstenberg showed off her latest wrap dresses to an audience that included Halston, Giorgio Sant’ Angelo, Calvin Klein and Geoffrey Beene. Today, such a roster evokes the aloof, gated compounds of the Hamptons or Malibu. But these celebrities lived in modestly scaled homes alongside middle-class vacationers, all with equal access to Fire Island’s natural beauty.
Blending cultural and architectural history, Fire Island Modernist ponders a fascinating era through an overlooked architect whose life, work and colorful milieu trace the operatic arc of a lost generation, and still resonate with artistic and historical import. First published in 2013 and long out of print, this iconic book returns in an expanded edition, including five new featured houses, drawings of previously unseen homes, new photography, updated scholarship and a new afterword by Charles Renfro.
This book was published in conjunction with Gordon De Vries Studio
