CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/30/2025

Christopher Rawlins and Charles Renfro launch 'Fire Island Modernist' at Rizzoli

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.

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.

Christopher Rawlins is an architect and the founder of Rawlins Design, an architecture and interiors practice based in New York City. Christopher is also a historian and the founder of Pines Modern, a non-profit archive and advocate for Fire Island’s modernist heritage. In 2020, DoCoMoMo awarded Pines Modern its Modernism in America Award. Christopher is the author of Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction. First released in 2013, Fire Island Modernist is a hybrid work of biography, monograph, and cultural history. Christopher’s architectural practice and his scholarship began as separate endeavors, but his practice is now restoring five of the homes featured in Fire Island Modernist. Wallpaper* magazine named one of his Fire Island restorations to its Top Ten Houses of 2022. These dwellings are a product of the Stonewall era. But Horace Gifford’s utopian architecture also holds lessons for the future, as explored in this new, expanded edition of Fire Island Modernist.

Charles Renfro joined Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) in 1997 and became a Partner in 2004. He led the design and construction of the studio’s first concert hall outside of the US—The Tianjin Juilliard School in China—as well as the studio's first public park outside of the US—Zaryadye Park in Moscow. Charles has also led the design of much of DS+R's academic portfolio, with projects completed at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Brown University, the University of Chicago, and the recently completed Columbia Business School. Charles Renfro is leading the design of multiple interdisciplinary arts centers, including the new home for the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance in Harlem, New York and Sarofim Hall, a new home for Rice University’s Visual Arts department in Houston. He is also leading the design of the Fire Island AIDS Memorial. Charles has been recognized twice with the Out100 list, and since 2012, has been deeply involved with BOFFO, a non profit organization that supports the work of queer LGBTQ+ BIPOC artists and designers. He is a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 PM.

Can't attend? Order your signed copy here (please specify that you would like it signed in the comments box at checkout).

Rizzoli Bookstore
Christopher Rawlins and Charles Renfro on 'Fire Island Modernist'
Wednesday, April 30, 6–8 PM
1133 Broadway
New York, NY 10010