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Ferguson & Shamamian Architects designs an inspired farmhouse with spectacular Atlantic views in East Hampton.

- JEFF HARDER

SET BACK FROM THE SAND DUNES and flanked by magnolia trees, the farmhouse on eastern Long Island seems like it's been there since the 1700s. The weathered gray clapboards and shingles adorning a modified saltbox, the converted barn near the street, the old agrarian acreage recast in the rustic elegance-every element is a chapter in the property's generations-old story.

But the story, as it turns out, is deeply researched historical fiction. When a previous client of Ferguson & Shamamian Architects approached the SoHo-headquartered firm about building a home on a long narrow site in East Hampton, they wanted a place that would accommodate several generations of extended family, take advantage of the views out to the dunes and the Atlantic beyond, and, even though it was a brand-new residence, fit into its surroundings by representing the past it might have had.

"It was really about how to create a set of buildings that resemble an 18th-century East End farmhouse, and show that this farmhouse had expanded and grown over time and taken on different characters along with its history," says Stephen Chrisman, the architect who led the design of the project and a partner who's been with Ferguson & Shamamian Architects since 1995.