Three Friends Join Forces to Build a Four-Gabled Getaway on Shelter Island

The creek-front communal beach house is made of four structures connected by a glass hallway.

Three Friends Join Forces to Build a Four-Gabled Getaway on Shelter Island

The creek-front communal beach house is made of four structures connected by a glass hallway.

The cladding is triple-stained black cedar shiplap. The doors and windows are by Andersen.

For 11 years, Mara Lipner and Gabrielle and David Chamberlain shared a summer rental on Shelter Island, the verdant knob that sits in a bay between the North and South Forks of Long Island’s East End. The trio grew to be close friends, meeting up most weekends throughout the summers to enjoy the house and its water views from its vantage point in Shelter Island Heights. The only problem came in mid-September, when the season ended. The house wasn’t winterized, so year-round visits were not an option.

A multi-gabled house designed by architect Corey Yurkovich for a couple and their longtime friend sits amid beech trees, cattails, and seagrasses on New York’s Shelter Island.

A multi-gabled house designed by architect Corey Yurkovich for a couple and their longtime friend sits amid beech trees, cattails, and seagrasses on New York’s Shelter Island.

Photo: Pippa Drummond

Mara, who works in financial services and lives in Manhattan’s East Village, and the Chamberlains, executives at experiential design agencies who live in Harlem, eventually looked into buying or building separate weekend retreats that they could enjoy all year. They searched for places on Shelter Island with water views that they could afford. But eventually they realized they could do something more interesting if they pooled their resources.

The cladding is triple-stained black cedar shiplap. The doors and windows are by Andersen.

The cladding is triple-stained black cedar shiplap. The doors and windows are by Andersen.

Photo: Pippa Drummond

"Corey’s idea of decoupling the boxes into separate units meant we could play with how far forward or back each one was," says resident Gabrielle Chamberlain.

Photo: Pippa Drummond

See the full story on Dwell.com: Three Friends Join Forces to Build a Four-Gabled Getaway on Shelter Island
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