THE LUCKIEST DAMN CHICKENS IN THE WORLD

…live in an architectural marvel near the ocean in East Hampton.

- GARY SHTEYNGART

“Chickens are the new frontier,” the architect Pietro Cicognani tells me, as he barrels down the Long Island Expressway at top speed. “There’s a chicken war in the Hamptons. People don’t want Bentleys or haute couture. They want to save endangered heritage chickens.” I’ve known Cicognani for decades. In addition to his considerable architectural chops, he is one of New York’s great charmers and gives easily the best bear hug in the city. (He comes by bear-hugging honestly: His grandmother was the daughter of Piotr Stolypin, one of Russia’s last prime ministers under the tsars.) Cicognani’s work draws from an eclectic mix of architects and styles, including Louis Kahn, Alvar Aalto, Islamic architecture, and his beloved Baroque. His commissions are also eclectic and remarkable, including a church in Venice, which he is about to convert into a family residence, a private mausoleum in Delaware, and his own apartment in Rome. Lately, though, Cicognani has become the master of the high-end, top-of-the-line, brilliantly over-the-top chicken coop. And today I am to behold his greatest masterpiece to date.