Product Description

The Bra. The Box Kite. The Cat. The Milk Carton. The Reclining Picasso. These are the playful names given to the eccentric beach houses of Andrew Geller. Built in the 1950s and 1960s, these whimsical vacation homes reflected the idea of summer leisure for a generation more concerned with fun on the beach than ostentatious display.

For clients in the Hamptons, the Jersey shore, and in New England, Geller built dozens of houses, most of wood and most on modest budgets. Geller, who worked with Raymond Loewy and directed the design of such modernist landmarks as the Lever House in New York, combined a modern interest in light, breeze, and functional living with playful form-making. These spirited houses, many shown here for the first time through vintage photographs and drawings, still delight today and will inspire anyone interested in beach house living.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #831060 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 116 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Gordon (Weekend Utopia) takes readers on a tour of "quixotic designer-architect" Geller's beach houses in this handsomely illustrated homage. Geller, a long-time designer at the Loewy Corporation, a pioneering industrial design firm, made a name for himself in the 1950s and 60s when he began taking commissions to build architecturally adventurous summer houses in Sagaponack, Amagansett and other beach towns. His playful designs made the most of their location-generally, these were small houses on small lots, and windows opening onto the beach were crucial-and often reflected important parts of their owners' personalities: a Kodak executive's house was a boxy structure with "lenslike" windows, while a well-known ladies' man's dwelling looked a little like a "square brassiere." Later, Geller worked on the Leisurama brand of prefabricated summer homes, which were sold at Macy's and came furnished, right down to towels and toothbrushes. As Gordon writes, "each one of Geller's houses told a story and sometimes, in his best work, this story took the form of a kind of comic-strip imagery that recalled Krazy Kat, Rube Goldberg, Betty Boop, and the bebop jazz that Geller admired." While many of the houses Geller designed were destroyed in hurricanes, demolished to make room for McMansions or remodeled and expanded beyond recognition, the photographs and architectural drawings in this volume bring them appealingly back to life. 25 color, 60 b&w illustrations.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Alastair Gordon is a contributing editor at House & Garden and a regular contributor to the New York Times. He is the author of Weekend Utopia: Modern Living in the Hamptons and resides in Princeton, NJ.

Customer Reviews

An appealing architectural survey
Architect Andrew Geller's quirky and unusual beach houses built in the 1950s and 1960s are profiled in Beach Houses: Andrew Geller, a fine title surveying these whimsical vacation homes. Geller built dozens of houses on modest budgets, along the East Coast: Beach Houses: Andrew Geller combines black and white sketches and photos with color photos and a running discussion of Geller's artistic and practical challenges. An appealing architectural survey.

A little known pioneer in modern architecture
I have known Mr. Geller and parts of his family for over 15 years. This book can only begin to explain the genius involved in the designs I have seen. I have stayed in a home of Mr. Geller's design which was absolutely remarkable in its use of open space while still allowing for privacy in a home that at the time was shared by 7 people.

I am thrilled that this book finally gives some long overdue credit to one of the pioneers of modern residential architecture.

A wonderful book about a fantastic architect!
I love this book. It's beautifully illustrated and well written. Certainly a must for anyone interested in modernist architecture second home design!