Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons
A House by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
By Paul Goldberger.
The story of the creation of an astonishing house that renews and reinvigorates the spirit of the avant-garde in the Hamptons
Architecture critic Paul Goldberger tells the story of an extraordinary house on the Atlantic Double Dunes in East Hampton—Blue Dream, the result of a remarkable collaboration between collectors Julie Reyes Taubman and Robert Taubman, architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, builder Ed Bulgin, landscape architect Michael Boucher and designer Michael Lewis, who sought to renew the legacy of modernist architecture and art in the Hamptons. Goldberger offers insight into the complex process by which an architectural idea generated a work that stands as the most striking addition of our time to the roster of architecturally ambitious modernist houses on Long Island. As he notes, "There are relatively few books devoted to the architecture of a single house, but what is clear if you read any of them is that they are stories about clients as much as about architects." So it is with Blue Dream. The Taubmans were inspired by the avant-garde spirit of artists and architects who settled and worked in the Hamptons and set out to create a house like no other, a house whose complex curving forms could only be built using the composite material used to make fighter jets. Iwan Baan's photographic portfolio documents Blue Dream across four seasons. Goldberger’s text is illustrated with images of earlier modernist houses that inspired the project, as well as documentation of the design process involved in the making of Blue Dream itself. Paul Goldberger (born 1950), whom the Huffington Post has called "the leading figure in architecture criticism," is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. Goldberger began his career at the New York Times in 1972 and was appointed architecture critic at the paper in 1973, working alongside Ada Louise Huxtable until 1982. In 1984, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism. As architecture critic for the New Yorker (1997–2011), he wrote the magazine’s celebrated "Sky Line" column. After serving as dean of the Parsons School of Design from 2004 to 2006, Goldberger was named the Joseph Urban Professor of Design at the New School. He is the author of Why Architecture Matters (2023), Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry (2015), Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture (2009), Beyond the Dunes: A Portrait of the Hamptons, with photographer Jake Rajs (2018) and Houses of the Hamptons (1986), among other publications.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
WSJ. Magazine
Fred A. Bernstein
Renfro tried to give the Taubmans a true work of art—an object both beautiful and meaningful. The house is unmistakably the former, a kind of bubble rising from a dunescape.
New York Magazine: Curbed
Wendy Goodman
Calls to mind Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal at JFK and John Lautner’s dramatic Arango House in Mexico.
Wallpaper*
Jonathan Bell
The spectacular end result is captured by Iwan Baan, who uses his experienced photographic eye to highlight the house’s relationship with its surroundings as well as its utterly unique programme.
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Tuesday, August 29 at 5 PM, East Hampton bookseller BookHampton presents architecture critic Paul Goldberger on his new book, Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons, the story of an extraordinary house on the Atlantic Double Dunes. Blue Dream is result of a remarkable collaboration between collectors Julie Reyes Taubman and Robert Taubman, architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, builder Ed Bulgin, landscape architect Michael Boucher and designer Michael Lewis, who sought to renew the legacy of modernist architecture and art in the Hamptons. Click here to register. continue to blog
Thursday, August 24, from 7–8:30 PM Guild Hall presents leading architecture critic Paul Goldberger and renowned architect Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro in the intimacy of Guild Hall’s Furman Garden for a discussion of Goldberger’s new book, Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons, on the creation of the extraordinary Blue Dream House in East Hampton. Purchase tickets here. continue to blog
Featured photographs, all by Iwan Baan, are reproduced from Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons, the new release from noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger and publisher DelMonico Books documenting the visionary East Hampton home of the late collector, photographer and philanthropist Julie Reyes Taubman and her husband Robert Taubman, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with builder Ed Bulgin, landscape architect Michael Boucher and designer Michael Lewis. Goldberger writes, “Blue Dream is like nothing that has come before it, and that, in and of itself, ties it more closely than anything built in the Hamptons in more than a generation to the great desire of modernism, the quest, to paraphrase Ezra Pound, to forever make it new. … Behind every notable house—and many un-notable ones—is the story of a client as much as an architect, the story of how they joined together to create something that neither party could have done on its own. This is particularly true in the case of Blue Dream. The clients began with a love of the ocean, a love of modernism, the idea of making it new, and they sought a house that would weave these things together. It embraces paradox, since it is an ode to collecting, which is fundamentally conservative, and to designing in a new way, which is fundamentally radical. It is about technology, it is about traditional craft, it is about the land, and it is about objects. It is both a private meditation and a public statement.” continue to blog
Featured photographs, all by Iwan Baan, are reproduced from Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons, the new release from noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger and publisher DelMonico Books documenting the visionary East Hampton home of the late collector, photographer and philanthropist Julie Reyes Taubman and her husband Robert Taubman, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with builder Ed Bulgin, landscape architect Michael Boucher and designer Michael Lewis. Goldberger writes, “Blue Dream is like nothing that has come before it, and that, in and of itself, ties it more closely than anything built in the Hamptons in more than a generation to the great desire of modernism, the quest, to paraphrase Ezra Pound, to forever make it new. … Behind every notable house—and many un-notable ones—is the story of a client as much as an architect, the story of how they joined together to create something that neither party could have done on its own. This is particularly true in the case of Blue Dream. The clients began with a love of the ocean, a love of modernism, the idea of making it new, and they sought a house that would weave these things together. It embraces paradox, since it is an ode to collecting, which is fundamentally conservative, and to designing in a new way, which is fundamentally radical. It is about technology, it is about traditional craft, it is about the land, and it is about objects. It is both a private meditation and a public statement.” continue to blog
Featured photographs, all by Iwan Baan, are reproduced from Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons, the new release from noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger and publisher DelMonico Books documenting the visionary East Hampton home of the late collector, photographer and philanthropist Julie Reyes Taubman and her husband Robert Taubman, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with builder Ed Bulgin, landscape architect Michael Boucher and designer Michael Lewis. Goldberger writes, “Blue Dream is like nothing that has come before it, and that, in and of itself, ties it more closely than anything built in the Hamptons in more than a generation to the great desire of modernism, the quest, to paraphrase Ezra Pound, to forever make it new. … Behind every notable house—and many un-notable ones—is the story of a client as much as an architect, the story of how they joined together to create something that neither party could have done on its own. This is particularly true in the case of Blue Dream. The clients began with a love of the ocean, a love of modernism, the idea of making it new, and they sought a house that would weave these things together. It embraces paradox, since it is an ode to collecting, which is fundamentally conservative, and to designing in a new way, which is fundamentally radical. It is about technology, it is about traditional craft, it is about the land, and it is about objects. It is both a private meditation and a public statement.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 13 in. / 280 pgs / 232 color / 42 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $85.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $123 GBP £75.00 ISBN: 9781636811123 PUBLISHER: DelMonico Books AVAILABLE: 9/5/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Blue Dream and the Legacy of Modernism in the Hamptons A House by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Published by DelMonico Books. By Paul Goldberger.
The story of the creation of an astonishing house that renews and reinvigorates the spirit of the avant-garde in the Hamptons
Architecture critic Paul Goldberger tells the story of an extraordinary house on the Atlantic Double Dunes in East Hampton—Blue Dream, the result of a remarkable collaboration between collectors Julie Reyes Taubman and Robert Taubman, architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, builder Ed Bulgin, landscape architect Michael Boucher and designer Michael Lewis, who sought to renew the legacy of modernist architecture and art in the Hamptons.
Goldberger offers insight into the complex process by which an architectural idea generated a work that stands as the most striking addition of our time to the roster of architecturally ambitious modernist houses on Long Island. As he notes, "There are relatively few books devoted to the architecture of a single house, but what is clear if you read any of them is that they are stories about clients as much as about architects." So it is with Blue Dream. The Taubmans were inspired by the avant-garde spirit of artists and architects who settled and worked in the Hamptons and set out to create a house like no other, a house whose complex curving forms could only be built using the composite material used to make fighter jets.
Iwan Baan's photographic portfolio documents Blue Dream across four seasons. Goldberger’s text is illustrated with images of earlier modernist houses that inspired the project, as well as documentation of the design process involved in the making of Blue Dream itself.
Paul Goldberger (born 1950), whom the Huffington Post has called "the leading figure in architecture criticism," is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. Goldberger began his career at the New York Times in 1972 and was appointed architecture critic at the paper in 1973, working alongside Ada Louise Huxtable until 1982. In 1984, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism. As architecture critic for the New Yorker (1997–2011), he wrote the magazine’s celebrated "Sky Line" column. After serving as dean of the Parsons School of Design from 2004 to 2006, Goldberger was named the Joseph Urban Professor of Design at the New School. He is the author of Why Architecture Matters (2023), Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry (2015), Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture (2009), Beyond the Dunes: A Portrait of the Hamptons, with photographer Jake Rajs (2018) and Houses of the Hamptons (1986), among other publications.
