Horace Gifford's Lipkins House, Fire Island Pines, 1970

With its pulsating roofline and thrusting cantilevers, Horace Gifford conjured a discotheque upon the dunes at the Lipkins House. All was bared, with floor-to-ceiling windows across the entire coastal elevation. Control panels operated a futuristic array of blinking, multicolored lights installed by Broadway Maintenance, the clients' street-lighting company. A sunken living area led down to the "Cave," a windowless den of electric blue shag-carpeted walls and oversize pillows. Rechristened the "Womb" by its owners, it looked like a sex pit but allegedly functioned as its opposite--a solitary and shadowy retreat from the voyeuristic spaces above.

This home is featured in Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction. With the aid of original drawings from the PinesModern.org archive, the Lipkins House was recently restored.