The new Peter Marino Art Foundation opened on Long Island’s East End last month, revealing to the public for the first time the famed collection of the prodigious architect known worldwide for his retail spaces and Leather Daddy aesthetic.
The Foundation is housed in the former Rogers Memorial Library purchased in 2018 from the town of Southampton. The library was the former home of the Parrish Art Museum and was being rented by decor retailer One Kings Lane before the sale.
Marino was able to overhaul the 126-year-old structure originally designed by R.H. Robertson, carefully restoring the 8,000-square-foot space that retained some of its original elements such as its Gothic towers and porcelain-tiled first-floor mantel. The project also added new features that complement the original interior, including a parquet floor and bluestone outdoor walkway. A new garden inspired by Warren H. Manning has also been installed, transforming the original arboretum into a replica of the one on the grounds of the architect’s nearby private residence that has itself become the subject of a recent book published by Rizzoli.
Marino had initially promised that the finished project would “make the Frick look shabby.”
The 72-year-old architect has worked with art spaces before, having received an AIA Award of Merit for his Nassau County Museum of Art master plan and recently coming up with the designs for blue-chip Lehmann Maupin Gallery’s space inside the so-called Getty development in Chelsea.
Marino has said in past public forums that he approaches collecting in a more holistic way than other prominent owners of private collections, preferring to see them as an extension of his creativity rather than an investment. “I don’t look at trends,” Marino said in a Bloomberg panel discussion included below. “I'm not that clever. I try to create them.”
The newly restored building is open to the public for timed tours on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets to the museum can be found here.
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