60 DIGS.NET
| 10.29.2021
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P R O F I L E | W O R R E L L Y E U N G
CERTAIN CALIBER OF architect is often judged by the
marquee moments—the headlining commission, the
great exertions of creating a great building. The late
American architect Charles Gwathmey was not immune
to this metric. As one the heralded "New York Five"
architects, his work was often of the seminal, not least his reno-
vation of Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark Guggenheim Museum. Of
those who argue that Gwathmey's private houses are equally vital
to his repertoire and our understanding of the architect himself
are admirers Max Worrell and Jejon Yeung, partners of New York
City-based architectural firm Worrell Yeung, whose sensitive
refresh of an original Gwathmey structure from the 1970s has
restored the now-named House in the Dunes—a two-story beach
abode with modernist bones—to its architectural essence, while
equipping it with a higher degree of contemporary utility.
Gwathmey's early works "explored building sections in ways
that use simple geometric shapes/forms to create complex and
dynamic spaces," says Worrell, noting that the structure at the
A
heart of this project was done almost 10 years after Gwathmey
designed his parents' house (a significant work of American
residential architecture in the 20th century). It therefore bene-
fitted from Gwathmey's early ideas, which he had "refined and
expanded upon in more ambitious ways." As architects, Worrell
and Yeung were intrigued with how the configuration of the house
creates multiple split levels connected by a stramp—a stair and
ramp—"so that there are always these overlapping spaces and
unexpected visual connections across spaces that create a spatial
