Design: A View From Every Level
When Leonard and Judi Ackerman first moved to East Hampton in 1973 with their two young daughters, they bought a small house on Egypt Lane. He practiced law from the kitchen table and she ran a children's clothing store around the corner on Pantigo Road.
But as business boomed and the family grew they decided to build. By 1976 they purchased four and one-half glorious sloping acres on Georgica Pond from one of Leonard's elderly clients, who was subdividing the larger 40-acre parcel and whom the Ackermans had befriended.
They interviewed several architects and chose Eugene Futterman, a prominent architect who lived and worked on the East End from 1964 to 1987, when he died at the age of 51.
Built Vertically
"We wanted a simple barn-style house, and we'd seen a dozen or so that Gene had done, including the Ron Lauder house," Mr. Ackerman said. Moreover, at that time Mr. Futterman was building as well as designing, and he could give the Ackermans a fixed price that would include everything and meet their budget.
"Gene came to the site and explained how he could take advantage of the topography and build us a multi-level house that we could grow into as a family living here year round," Mr. Ackerman said. Mr. Futterman said that by slicing into the land and building vertically they could have views of Georgica Pond in the back and the 20 acres in the front that were to be deeded to the Nature Conservancy and kept wild.
Multi-level indeed. Tightly wrapped around the central spine of the slope, the Ackerman house is a marvel of siting.
Three-Plus Levels
One comes up a long winding driveway and parks at the ground floor, level one. Here there is a two-car garage, swimming pool, and large brick terrace area that overlooks the pond, laundry, and workout equipment, plus a sub-basement for air conditioning and heating equipment as well as storage.
Fifteen steps up and you're at the main floor, level two, with a restaurant-quality kitchen (Mr. Futterman was a master chef), dining room, cozy wood-paneled library, screened-in porch. Seven steps down to the left, between these two levels, is a giant sunken living room with double-height ceilings and views in three directions. Back to the second level and up another 14 steps and you're at level three, the bedroom wing.
The stairs are steep. "I don't think Gene ever thought we'd live in the house this long," Mrs. Ackerman confided.
Two years of study with the Japanese landscape architect Sasaki helped Mr. Futterman learn site planning and Japanese landscape architecture. "Gene carved all the flower beds right into the terraces," Mrs. Ackerman said.
Originally planted by Eleanor Whitmore and Jane Lappin, the beds are immaculate and elegant. There are no gardens on the grounds, only four and one-half serene rolling acres of "crabgrass." Concerned about the health of the pond, Mrs. Ackerman only uses natural fertilization.
Ernest Schifferstein, a North Haven architect and former Futterman associate who worked on the Ackerman house, said that it was a classic example of Mr. Futterman's early work. "It's a cross between the barn vernacular out here and classic modernism: open floor plans, lots of glass and light-filled spaces, a strong relationship of indoor to outdoor," he said.
A dozen skylights flood the house with light - even an upstairs shower.
On A Napkin
"Futterman was a born teacher and a real problem solver," Mr. Schifferstein said. He recalled how the architect would stand on a site and "see the whole thing." He'd go home and sketch it all on a paper napkin, which he'd bring to the office the next day, and direct his staff to start making a model.
Eric Woodward, a Southampton architect who took over Mr. Futterman's practice when he died, said 1976 to 1978, when the Ackerman house was going up, proved a transitional time for the architect. Peter Tishman, a friend of the Ackermans, watched the progress and was so impressed that he hired Mr. Futterman to build his own house on the south side of Georgica Pond.
Pictured in "East Hampton's Heritage: An Illustrated Architectural Record" (by Clay Lancaster, Robert A.M. Stern, and Robert Heffner), the Peter Tishman House of 1980 became the first of Mr. Futterman's grand-scale, traditional houses of the Shingle Style which were to remain his signature until his death.
Enthusiasm Lives On
"Futterman's practice did not gain the recognition it deserved," said Mr. Woodward, who was his associate on the Brous and Adler houses of 1983, both of which are pictured in Paul Goldberger's book "Houses of the Hamptons." Mr. Goldberger, however, described Mr. Futterman's work as having ". . . a nervous active quality about it that gives his houses the air of shingled castles."
According to Mr. Woodward, Mr. Futterman always said that the architects who got highly published were all from Yale, which he called an old boys' network. Mr. Futterman went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
"His whole enthusiasm lives on in so many people. He had six associates and we're all practicing architecture out here," Mr. Woodward said.
Interior Decor
In all, Mr. Futterman built or renovated nearly 100 private houses from Quogue to Montauk in the course of his career. The elaborate renovation of the 1926 oceanfront Lawrence Oakley House for Mort Zuckerman on Drew Lane and the renovation of Edith Beale's Grey Gardens at the corner of Apaquogue and Georgica for Ben Bradley and Sally Quinn are examples of his work.
Two decades later and with two daughters grown, little in the Ackermans' house has been changed. The furnishings, almost all bought locally, are straightforward: English country antiques, large upholstered pieces, cheerful floral chintzes.
Family pictures in old silver frames adorn tabletops and walls, and antique porcelain and glass smalls glitter everywhere. The Ackermans also bought the work of local artists. A large Ralph Carpentier painting graces the tiled fireplace in the living room, and there are two Ronnie Chalif sculptures.
A Little Warmer
"The only thing I've really changed was to rip out the built-in formica beds, Mrs. Ackerman said. "Gene's idea was to keep everything very abbreviated, but I've gone a little Ralph Lauren up here to warm things up." There are nine pillows on her bed.
Leonard Ackerman, a local attorney and investor, is known for some of the famous clients he has come to represent, including Calvin Klein and Martha Stewart. "A lot of my clients also live on the pond and feel I can represent their interests," he said.
Mr. Ackerman also owns two office buildings on Newtown Lane as well as the Revco building. And until this year he was the co-owner with Mickey Schulhof of WEHM, the local radio station which was recently sold to Frederic Seegal and has just merged with the Amagansett station WBEA.
Few Regrets
Mr. Ackerman has long been an aficionado of antique cars. Mr. Futterman built a freestanding barn for two additional cars when the attached two-car garage became inadequate. Mr. Ackerman confesses to storing four more golden oldies somewhere in Springs.
An avid sailor, Mr. Ackerman owns one of the two dozen 12.5-foot catboats (Beetle Cats) that have unofficially become the one-design class boat of Georgica Pond. But because "Jones Cove," the finger of the pond he's on, is shallow and hard to sail out of, he keeps it moored at Peter Tishman's, in the large belly of the pond.
Twenty years later do the Ackermans have any regrets?
"Oh, I wish Gene had built a circular driveway so we could enter on the second floor," Mr. Ackerman said with a big grin. And Mrs. Ackerman pines for the laundry chute that never got built.
"I kept saying, 'Gene, how do you expect me to get the clothes and bed linens from the third floor to the laundry room on the first floor?' " Mrs. Ackerman explained. "He kept saying, 'Don't worry, we're going to do a wonderful laundry chute.' When the house was almost finished I asked him again and he said, 'I think the laundry chute will have to end up on your front lawn!' "
"As you get older it gets harder carrying the groceries and cleaning up all the flights," Mrs. Ackerman lamented.
But she and her husband still love their house and land too much to leave. "And let's not forget that these stairs have kept Judi Ackerman, age 55, in good shape," she said.