Retreat   Oyster Bay, NY

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The rolling hillside site of this house affords a variety of views and a landscape interlaced with fieldstone walls. The house, garage, and pool are located just below the highest point and are organized around an east-west axis that bisects the house and runs out into site as a bounding wall. A perpendicular approach leads into the house from which spectacular views abound to the northwest and northeast through undulating glass walls. this house does not face in any primary direction. Instead the party consists of two more or less rectangular volumes that slide past each other in an east-west direction on either side of a top-lit stair hall that runs parallel to the same axis.In contrast to the fully glazed living volume, the kitchen, study, and the intimate spaces on the upper levels are all enclosed in heavyweight masonry walls pierced by corner windows and relatively small openings.