Tour a Serene Amagansett House That’s Oriented Around a Central Pool

There’s an old adage that says you should never hire someone you can’t fire. But Franky Lee is glad he didn’t follow that advice when building his Amagansett house, located in the oceanfront Hamptons village that is blessed with a natural seascape and white sand beaches.

The 37-year-old enlisted the help of two of his college friends from the University of Pennsylvania to erect his 1,761-square-foot residence: architect Ian Starling and landscape designer Margaret Jankowsky. (Starling added Emily Lindberg to the mix to handle the interior design.)

The results of the collaboration, a remarkably minimalist structure that provides a stark contrast to the raw coastal landscape, virtually ensure that those college-era friendships will remain intact. “Ian was critical to the entire process, from helping me settle on the location to leading every detail of the design,” says Lee, an asset manager. “Margaret made the whole collaboration even more rewarding.” 

The design team spent a year mapping out the architectural and tectonic elements of the project and another 12 months building the structure. Along the way, they navigated the town’s notoriously rigid building codes to create a home that successfully avoids the cookie-cutter, wood-shingle-style properties that dot the neighborhood.

“Franky wasn’t afraid to take risks with the design,” says Starling, who spent several years at SHoP Architects before launching his own studio in 2017. His Brooklyn-based boutique firm specializes in creating streamlined, materially rich spaces. “It was important to him to create something unique yet also very personal to his own aesthetic nature.”

The exterior is clad with black Gendai shou sugi ban wood from Nakamoto Forestry in Oregon, while the interior is characterized by warm wood elements including white oak floors and millwork. The pool, located on an elevated deck, is the focal point of the home’s layout. Starling had the communal spaces glazed with floor-to-ceiling windows and oriented towards the pool deck. The living room is a dramatic double-height space to the west of the pool, while thehe dining room to the north of the pool has a large sliding door that disappears into a pocket in the wall, creating a seamless connection between inside and outside. “The spaces are physically or visually connected to the pool deck to create a constant sense of connectivity with the outdoors,” Starling adds.

The interior design is meant to complement the minimalist, crisp lines of the architecture, says Emily Lindberg, a designer with studios in Providence and New York whose work often takes an integrative approach to architecture and interiors. “The goal was to soften the architecture by adding more texture, more color and curves,” she says.

Custom millwork pieces such as the kitchen island and dining area use exaggerated proportions, angles, and curves for a softened, playful look while maintaining the same palette of the architecture. Elements of vintage, organic, and handmade along with new pieces and clean lines, create visual diversity and a lived-in feeling. Landscape architect Margaret Jankowsky collaborated with Starling on a site design that embraces its seaside surroundings.

Building on the natural beauty of the nearby dunes and beach plants, the front garden features predominantly native species including pitch pines and beach plum. It’s a loose planting of meadow grasses amongst a mix of pines and oaks, with woody shrubs closer to the Amagansett house.

“These kinds of projects are usually stressful,” says Lee. “But being able to work with people you know and trust made the whole thing pretty rewarding in the end.”