# @dwellmagazine on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DJUVS-otBvf
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33974090-dwellmagazine-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/797f41f5e8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-05-06T15:48:09.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Dwell (@dwellmagazine) — https://gondola.cc/dwellmagazine

## Caption

Way back in 2009, we got the chance to step inside Joe and Jonathan’s home on Long Island, which they renovated with the same architect who designed it 40 years prior. In celebration of our 25th anniversary this year—and National Preservation Month—we’re resurfacing the story from our archive.
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“I can show you what it was…and what it is,” Joe said, delineating the slight, 250-square-foot addition to his Long Island summer home as we stepped inside. In effect, the 1,400-square-foot house—a simple cypress box elegantly sited on one of the area’s anomalous slopes—had been largely unchanged. “We decided to expand it a bit but not to alter the footprint,” he continued. “The idea was to keep it small and, really, we bought the house because we liked it—we didn’t want to change it.” But even the most well-executed design has trouble withstanding the wear and tear of 40 years; if it didn’t need a change, it certainly needed an update. So Joe and his partner, Jonathan, made the most logical decision: They hired the original architect, Harry Bates, to do the renovation. Post-renovation, any slickness of the structure is mediated by its humble form and materials. As Bates described it: “It was built at a period when budgets were so low that we couldn’t afford things like entrance halls. The materials are very basic: brick concrete blocks, rough-cut cypress with tongue-and-groove, and shiplapping construction.” When all is said and done, the difference isn’t huge. “You know, at the end of it, we looked at the house and we thought, Wow, we spent a lot of money!” Dolce remembered. But, he added, “None of the details are hidden, and that’s actually what makes it expensive. All these seams have to be perfect, and, if they’re not, you’re going to see it.” The mastery of the renovation is its relative invisibility. The simplicity of the program was handled with a slight and embracing hand. In the end, what it is turns out to be exactly what it was: a timeless vision. #dwellarchives | April, 2009 | Photos by raimund.koch | Story by bravabravo | #moderndesign #modernarchitecture #interiordesign #interiorarchitecture #modernhouse #modernrenovation

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## Tags

interiordesign, modernarchitecture, modernrenovation, dwellarchives, moderndesign, modernhouse, interiorarchitecture

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