66 ARCHDIGEST.COM
1. A TOSHIKO MORI–DESIGNED HOUSE ON THE NORTH FORK
OF LONG ISLAND. 2. HOMEOWNERS PHOEBE AND NICOLAS DE
CROISSET WITH THEIR VINTAGE MUSTANG IN THE DRIVEWAY.
P
hoebe and Nicolas de Croisset were just
young lovebirds when they fell for a
tiny hamlet on the North Fork of Long
Island, some 15 years ago. Introduced
to the community by Phoebe’s parents,
who own a house in town, they
delighted in the area’s rich history (as the nation’s
first submarine base) and friendly population of
hippies and artists. In 2007, the couple, not yet
married, bought a 1920s fisherman’s cottage, which
they fixed up simply—just in time, as fate would
have it, for Hurricane Sandy to all but destroy it.
Rather than attempt to rehabilitate it, the couple
opted to build anew, tapping AD100 architect
Toshiko Mori, a friend of Nicolas’s family, to devise
a modernist house that would both survive coastal
flooding and blend in with the local vernacular.
“The community feels very attached to the property
because it’s so close to the main beach,” notes
Phoebe, director of special projects at Maisonette,
the online children’s boutique. Adds Nicolas, a
financier: “We are both fans of modern architecture,
but we wanted to create something that worked
in this context.”
DISCOVERIES
ARCHITECTURE
Rising to the Occasion
On a scenic stretch of Long Island shore,
architect Toshiko Mori devises a compact
beach house to survive future storms
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MOTTALINI STYLED BY COLIN KING
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