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F ire Island, located less than two hours by car from the city centre, is a popular destination for New Yorkers. The
almost 50-kilometre long and in many places only a few hundred metres wide barrier island is situated off the
Long Island south coast, east of the metropolis, and separates the so-called Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean.
Towards the open sea, a wide sandy beach stretches along the entire island, which connects the more or less 20
municipalities, which are distributed across Fire Island like pearls on a string. There is no island road, and only a
small western part of the island, the majority of which is under nature conservation, is connected to the mainland
via a br idge. Additionally, ferries cruising through the Gr eat South Ba y are the main me ans of transport of Fire Foto: Crawford House, 1969, (c) Horace Gifford & Yale Wagner
Island. Since the end of the 19th century, the island has served as a summer domicile for New York’s residents.

“Boys in the Sand” with mid-century modernism

There are hardly any buildings in The Pines and Cherry Grove, which are older than 60 years. After a severe storm
devastated the island in 1938, it took until the end of the Second World War before the former holiday guests return Über Terrassen verband Gifford ... • Gifford used terraces to ...
in large numbers and hot els were renovated. However, the two municipalities experienced the bi ggest building
boom of their history in the 1950s and 1960s. The American economy flourished and brought broad sections of the
population unprecedented prosperity. More and more New Yorkers could afford to escape from the city’s sticky and
stifling climate and s pend the hot summer months or at le ast the weekends in their own beach houses on Fire
Island. As before the war, The Pines and Cherry Grove took a special position due to their predominantly gay clien-
tele. Particularly in the climate of the McCarthy era, which was characterised by denunciations, the dunes which
still separate the two places from each other, provided some kind of social area of freedom, where an open gay
life was possible, at least temporarily. At the time, the liberal spirit of The Pines and Cherry Grove spread through-
out North America. In 1971, Broadway choreographer Wakefield Poole chose this location as location for his leg-
endary gay porn “Boys in the S and”, which ranks among the classics of this genre. With his sensitive shots, the Foto: Kauth House, 1964, (c) Michael Weber
film enthusiast and autodidact drew a realistic picture of gay life on Fire Island beyond all social clichés of homo-
erotic sexuality. Since the film was also thoroughly reviewed in the features section of serious newspapers, "Boys
in the Sand" triggered a national debate about homosexuality, which decisively contributed to a liberalisation of
the entire society. Besides Wakefield Poole, Tom Bianchi can also be regarded as chronicler of gay life on the island. ... seine Bauten mit der Natur. • ... connect his buildings with nature.
In the 1970s, the renowned photographer from New York spent many summers on Fire Island and captured life on
the beach and in the dunes on his Polaroid SX-70.

“Best-looking boy” with moral weaknesses

Gifford probably belonged to the most colourful personalities in architecture at the time. It has been reported that
he liked to greet his clients – only dressed in swimming trunks – on the beach. A look at the yearbook of his high
school, where Giffon was celebrated as “best-looking boy” of his year, proves that he was obviously able to dare
such appearances. Additionally, he occasionally worked as a model after completing his studies. Particularly with
regard to the special clientele of The Pines and Cherry Grove, one can assume that his beach appearances made a
significant contribution to Gifford’s success. And the architect was indeed receptive to the advances of his clients.
Gifford was bound together with his first client from New York, set designer Edwin Wittstein and his life partner,
art director Robert Miller, in a ménage à trois lasting several years. The couple had initially commissioned Andrew
Geller with the construction of their common weekend home, who had caused great sensation with a ser ies of
experimental beach houses on Long Island. However, after Wittstein had engaged in an affair with Gifford, the con-
Gifford-Monografie von • Gifford monograph by Christopher Rawlins
tract with Geller was cancelled and inst ead, Gifford was commissioned with the project. That’s how the st ellar
career of the architect, who had not yet reached 30, started. Gifford was born in 1932 in Florida and had initially
started his education at the Uni versity of Florida, where he studied with, amongst others, Paul Rudolph, whose
legendary Florida Houses on the be aches of Sarasota made a lasting impression on Gif ford. However, Gifford
regarded Louis Kahn as his actual men tor, whom he f ollowed to attend a mast er course at the Uni versity of
Pennsylvania in 1958.

“Architecture of Seduction” with a tragic end

All the mor e, so i t seems, Gifford now focused on pr ivate commissions, which increased year after year and
allowed the architect to experiment with a rich design repertoire. Sitting areas sunken into the floor, which can be
turned into large lounge landscapes in front of the open fireplace if required, were just one of Gifford’s specialities.
Another theme was mirrored wall and ceiling areas, which not only served to visually extend the rooms but could
also stimulate voyeuristic games as they afforded broken up, kaleidoscopic insights into allegedly separated bath-
rooms and bedrooms. At some point, Gifford even started to replace the wall mirrors in the bathrooms of his clients
with tinted windows to extend the eroticism of seeing and been seen to the outside. The architects also designed
the obligatory outdoor showers on the generous terraces, which were used to clean and refresh oneself after spend-
ing time on the beach, slightly more open and visible than necessary. Christopher Rawlins, who wrote a wonderful
monograph on Gifford in recent years, describes his projects, maybe not without good reason, as “Architecture of
Seduction”. Rawlins also has an easy answer to the question why Gifford fell into oblivion after his early death in
1992, despite his remarkable and often published oeuvre: AIDS. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a whole gener-
ation of homosexual men fell victim to the immunodeficiency disease, which is why AIDS was initially panicky
stigmatised as “gay epidemic”. Mehr Informationen: • More informations: www.horacegifford.org

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