The late High Modernist architect and educator Charles Gwathmey created a body of work defined by playfully bold geometric forms and a spare use of adornment employed with formal elegance. The Yale-trained minimalist began his career in the 1960s creating fantastically unique beach bungalows in the Hamptons and other coastal communities around the Northeast, which are still highly prized today.
Gwathmey quickly became a favorite with the aesthetically adventurous. He did Faye Dunaway’s apartment at the Eldorado in 1969, transformed David Geffen’s Fifth Avenue co-op in 1979, and worked with Steven Spielberg several times, including on a six-acre waterside compound in East Hampton. The North Carolina native is, however, probably best known for his meticulous renovation and expansion of Fran