Tour Private Pools For A Public Pool
The Southampton Town Aquatic and Recreation Project has organized a beautiful-pools tour on Saturday, apparently the first of its kind. It includes several swimming pools said to be among the most spectacular in the Hamptons.
The proceeds from the tour will go to help build a public pool and aquatic center in Southampton.
The 10 pools to be visited are in Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, South ampton, Water Mill, and Hampton Bays. Maps and tickets, at $20 apiece, will be available at two main check-in points, Alan Ornstein's Green Hedges on Halsey Neck Lane, which is set in handsome gardens and has an adjoining pool house, and Martin Richards's By the Sea on Gin Lane, both in Southampton.
Mr. Richards's pool is highlighted by sculptures and an antique fountain. According to a release, it is the longest saltwater pool on the East End.
Three of the pools have won international design awards. Dr. Bilha Fish's pool on Bridge Lane, Bridgehampton, won a gold medal in the 1996 National Spa and Pool Institute design competition. It contains an elevated spa with a 25-foot cascading stone water wall down to the pool.
Richard Bungarz's pool and spa on North Side Drive in Sag Harbor is set on a hilltop. A 28-foot custom-designed free-form installation, it won the Pool Institute's gold medal in 1995. Tony and Terri Toscano's pool and spa on Hill Street in Southampton, surrounded by Arizona sandstone, won a bronze medal last year.
Philip and Lisa Bennett's pool on Hedges Lane, Southampton, sits in a traditional English garden and features bluestone coping with custom brick terraces. The free-form pool of Jay Salsburg, on Bettina Court in Hampton Bays, has a natural pond-like setting and large rocks for diving.
Choice Of Terrace
Thomas Nitti and Gail O'Brien's pool on Noyac Road in Sag Harbor is also free-form in shape, but its design seems to suggest a mountain setting. It has two sunning terraces, one for mornings and the other for afternoons.
Carlos and Wendy Routh's house on Little Noyac Path in Water Mill has a panoramic view of the pool from a secluded veranda.
Just down the road on Little Noyac Path in Water Mill, is John Segreti's pool, which features specially designed "fountain seats" in the middle of the water.
Finally, John and Kathleen Figlioni's bluestone-enclosed pool on Pheasant Close West in Southampton has an open cabana with a wet bar.
The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and refreshments will be served. It will be followed Saturday evening by a cocktail party at the Ox Pasture Road residence of Carol and Steven Antler, including a fashion show, silent auction, and raffle. The grand prize is, appropriately, a gunite pool worth $30,000.
Tickets to the party, at $75, include the daytime pool tour.
The Southampton Town Board's pool advisory committee has recommended building a public aquatic center on the grounds of Southampton College in conjunction with Southampton Hospital, although the Town Board has not yet approved the suggestion. The cost is estimated at $7.5 million.