logo.png

Profile

Bates Masi + Architects LLC, a LEED accredited firm with roots in New York and Long Island for over 45 years, responds to each project with extensive research in architectural fields, material, craft and environment for unique solutions as varied as the clients for whom they are designed. The focus is neither the size nor the type of project but the opportunity to enrich lives and enhance the environment. Projects include residences, schools, offices, hotels, restaurants, retail and furniture in the United States, Central America and the Caribbean. The firm has received 37 design awards since 2003 and has been featured in national and international publications including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Architectural Digest and Dwell.

Paul Masi received a Bachelor of Architecture from Catholic University and a Masters of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He worked at Richard Meier & Partners before joining this firm in 1998.

Harry Bates received a Bachelor of Architecture from North Carolina State University. After ten years with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, he was in private practice in New York City for 17 years before moving the firm to eastern Long Island in 1980.

Careers

Persons wishing to inquire about employment at Bates Masi Architects should send a resume and portfolio to our office via mail or by email to info@batesmasi.com. We respond best to concise, well-organized resumes accompanied by a few annotated images of your design work. Email attachments should be in PDF Format and no larger than 5MB. Please be advised that items sent by mail cannot be returned. We will send you a response indicating whether or not we would like to meet with you. We are not able to respond to telephone inquiries.

map.png
arrow-left.png
arrow-right.png

Robins Way

Lot size: 1.5 acres

Building size: 2,000 sq. ft.

Location: Amagasett, NY

Program: Single Family Residence

Contractor: Brian Mannix

Interior Designer: Athena Calderone

The clients, an interior designer and a DJ, requested a complete renovation and addition of a 1960’s kit house in Amagansett, NY to be a weekend retreat from their urban apartment. The clients gathered images of objects and conventional materials utilized in new, interesting ways as inspiration for the design. A single design solution that could unify the old remaining parts of the house to the new intervention was sought. This solution should solve acoustical, lighting, equipment coordination and simultaneously address the aesthetic décor requirements of the client’s collection of objects. A vocabulary was developed that allowed the patina and history that the client favored to remain and new experiences to evolve.

The house was gutted and reduced down to the skeletal framework allowing the intervention to utilize the post and beam construction that remained. Between the existing ceiling joists, natural rope was woven through a digitally fabricated framework. Weaving patterns were used to signify different ceiling conditions. Lighting penetrates through a crossed weave of the rope. It transitions to a straight weave to shield speakers and utilities from view. Since the client is a DJ, sound is very important. The rope weave

acts as an acoustic baffle absorbing background noise, but allows music from the ceiling mounted speakers to be emitted.

To integrate with the décor, the rope was used structurally to support several items such as a large, custom steel framed mirror in the Master Bathroom and the Dining Room Chandelier. A large sliding door is woven with the same rope to provide privacy from the neighbors and shield the sun at various times of the day. The sunlight rakes through the openings casting linear shadows on the bathroom floor.

Unifying the exterior is a dark stained cedar siding that wraps all of the exterior facades and transitions to the matching frames of the replaced windows and doors. The newly constructed interior walls and interior cabinetry were also resurfaced in reclaimed barn wood. Behind a sheet of glass, the same reclaimed wood lines the shower surround and one feels as though they are showering outdoors. The clients now have a quiet escape from city life.

The frequent turnover within a vacation community can be wasteful. Some are eager to tear down what exists and start new. This project preserved the skeleton of the house and the history in the patinaed materials that the client desired. Conventional materials were utilized in new ways to unify the old and the new.

email

Submit