Off The Grid

Life on Long Island can be busy, congested, expensive, and rather strip-mall ugly. The trade off? Fire Island. A beautiful stretch of beach with its own varied eco-system, it's hard to imagine a place where one can live so connected to the natural environment. The complexity of building on a barrier island, which changes literally with the tide, coupled with green technology and a forward thinking design produced this project currently under construction in a small beach community just off Ocean Parkway. Its ocean views offer amazing sunlight, but also pose issues for material wear. Wind and salt water can be a challenge to traditional materials, so every inch of this building had to be considered in several different ways. Once completed, the building will feature a geo-thermal system and photo-voltaic panels to provide most of the power for the moderately sized residential structure. This is a project that is also a testament to a collaborative process-- which includes having a client who wants better design and better materials, and a builder who supports that vision.