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Ten Houses: Gwathmey Siegel

Reviewed by Lester Paul Korzilius 
Approximately 200 words 

Published in Oculus, April 1997 

The ten houses shown in this book date from the 1980's to the present. These are big houses, with a median size of 10,000 s.f., giving them a typology approaching that of institutional buildings. For most architects, these ten buildings would form an exceptional career, but for New York architects Gwathmey Siegel they are a small part of a much larger body of work. If anything, Gwathmey Siegel are victims of their own success. The de Menil house in East Hampton, the earliest design shown in this book, sets a standard that is almost impossible to replicate. 

Many of the projects have been previously published. The designs are vintage Gwathmey Siegel, i.e., geometrical, precise, polished, and meticulously detailed. Mostly, these houses follow a formula established in earlier work that reached its apogee in the de Menil house. Two of the houses, however, point to a noticeable design evolution. The Opel house in Vermont is organized on a spine with the served spaces molded by their internal space. The San Onofre house adopts a bi-nuclear scheme giving it a richness lacking in the earlier work.

The book is agreeably priced, and strikes a good balance between the number of projects covered and the detail given to each. 

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