AUDIO
Pines Modern is a brand-new, non-profit 501(c)(3) endeavor dedicated to the rediscovery of all that the Pines has created, particularly its mid-century architectural and cultural heritage. We ask for your support in the form of tax deductible contributions to help us to continue discovering, documenting, and sharing the best that Fire Island Pines has to offer. There is much more to document! Our significant expenses include professional photography, drum-scanning of vintage images, creation and maintenance of the web site, required non-profit insurance, preservation consultations with homeowners, and the staffing of Pines Modern functions. Our officers are not paid for their efforts.
Donors at the $50 annual level and above will receive priority notification for house tours and other Pines Modern events. Each donor who contributes $150 and above will receive a free ticket to the next Pines Modern house tour. Please contact us if you would like to place an advertisement on our site.
For support regarding donations, send your message here.
2019 Contributors
Adam Wade
Pines Modern is a brand-new, non-profit 501(c)(3) endeavor dedicated to the rediscovery of all that the Pines has created, particularly its mid-century architectural and cultural heritage. We ask for your support in the form of tax deductible contributions to help us to continue discovering, documenting, and sharing the best that Fire Island Pines has to offer. There is much more to document! Our significant expenses include professional photography, drum-scanning of vintage images, creation and maintenance of the web site, required non-profit insurance, preservation consultations with homeowners, and the staffing of Pines Modern functions. Our officers are not paid for their efforts.
Donors at the $50 annual level and above will receive priority notification for house tours and other Pines Modern events. Each donor who contributes $150 and above will receive a free ticket to the next Pines Modern house tour. Please contact us if you would like to place an advertisement on our site.
For support regarding donations, send your message here.
2019 Contributors
Adam Wade
4 OCEAN WALK
AUDIO
Architect: PETER ASHER, 1968-69, 1980.
“In contemplating the design for building the dune house, I applied a spatial philosophy I had developed…to draw freehand the flow of movement through the space, locate doors and windows according to access and views, and then let that suggest the shape of the building.”--Peter Asher
Most of the noteworthy structures in the Pines are the brainchild of formally trained architects. Peter Asher enrolled in a handful of design courses at Columbia University and apprenticed at firms in Europe, but his experience as a boat builder, furniture designer, and bohemian Village dweller equally inform this endearingly quirky house. Asher admired the thin-shell hyperbolic paraboloid concrete structures developed by the Spanish architect Felix Candela. At 4 Ocean Walk, this techno-futuristic aesthetic is filtered through the improvisational, do-it-yourself sensibility of The Whole Earth Catalog, also known as the hippie bible.
The first floor is a boxy “pedestal,” as Asher described it, built in 1968. The following summer, two paraboloids slowly rose and embraced, with the help of local high school students. A serpentine walkway (since washed away) proceeded to a hexagonal deck set within the dunes. Asher revisited his design for new owners in 1980, joining the north and south-facing decks. He also inserted something akin to a hair toss at the northwest paraboloid, adding headroom to the kitchen. Current residents Bob Tortora and Angelo DeSanto have painstakingly restored the home in recent years.
1st 2 photos: Darren Bradley. Last photo: Leonard Dell. All others: Courtesy Pater Asher.
