From his showstopping overhaul of Tiffany & Co.’s Manhattan flagship to his design of retail spaces for Chanel, Dior, and Louis Vuitton, ELLE DECOR A-List Titan Peter Marino is best known for his dazzling architecture and design on behalf of the world’s top luxury brands. But his latest book, Peter Marino: Ten Modern Houses, out this month from Phaidon, tells another story. Since founding his New York City firm in 1978, the architect has also specialized in the creation of ground-up residences, inside and out—but only for the right clients. As the never-before-seen Southampton, New York, project shows, commissioning a home by Marino involves a high level of trust, allowing him total creative freedom. Indeed, he notes in the book’s preface: “Architecture comes from the Greek for ‘chief’ and ‘creations.’
Low slung and blinding in its whiteness, the Long Island home has aluminum railings and screens, or brise-soleils, inspired by French modernist architecture. “My approach to residential design is heavily influenced by the site and functionality of the house and the way the clients want to live,” Marino said in an email interview. “For this client, it’s a seasonal home, and I find that for second homes, clients are much more willing to entertain new ideas. We embraced an indoor-outdoor aesthetic where massive expanses of glass were used to connect views directly to the ocean.”