CookFox Architects Restores the Hamptons‘ Iconic Double Diamond House

When Rick Cook of CookFox Architects first visited the Pearlroth House, a box-kite-like icon of midcentury modernism in Westhampton Beach, New York, the building was a mess, boarded up and on the verge of falling down. But Cook’s son David, then eight years old, climbed around the dilapidated structure and pronounced it “the coolest house ever.”

“He was responding to its lightness and playfulness,” reflects Cook, who calls the house “freakishly great.” Designed by architect Andrew Geller in 1959, the oceanfront home became emblematic of an age when a 600-square-foot cabin was considered plenty big for summer weekends. But by the time Cook visited, the property’s owner, Jonathan Pearlroth, who had inherited it from his father, had considered tearing it down to make way for a bigger place for his growing family. Attempts to give the house, also known as the Double Diamond, to the town of Southampton had foundered.

A vintage photo of the lot.

A chance meeting between Cook and one of Geller’s grandsons, historian Jake Gorst, sparked a solution: Cook proposed moving the Double Diamond 40 feet inland, then building a new house for the Pearlroth family on its footprint, with a pool to serve as a buffer between the two structures. Pearlroth agreed, and soon Cook was at work both restoring Geller’s original creation (now a poolhouse) and designing a 3,300-square-foot addition that—while modest by Hamptons standards—would give the family breathing room.

The new building is a box with sliding doors at its center. When they’re open, it’s possible to see right through the structure, preserving the Double Diamond’s connection to the ocean. When they’re closed, the main house provides a neutral background for Geller’s angular architecture. The midcentury home is like a sculpture, says Cook, whose goal was to give the work the right setting. “It exceeds my wildest expectations,” says Pearlroth of the project. “But the Double Diamond is still the star of the show.”

A view toward the addition that now acts as the main house.