We were asked to renovate the Peconic Land Trust’s Information Center in Bridgehampton, The Bridge Gardens. The Peconic Land Trust is a non-profit that works to conserve Long Island’s working farms. Our mandate was to enhance the Information Center for public use.

The new building’s program needed to serve multiple purposes. It needed to accommodate a 150-person fundraiser on one day and host classrooms and workshops on other days while providing workspaces for staff and a live-in suite for a caretaker on others.

We opened up the building to the beautiful gardens in which it had existed for decades. To honor the horticulturalists who donated Bridge Gardens to the public, we also wanted the building to grow out of the landscape rather than be placed upon it.

Large expanses of glass place the inhabitants within the gardens rather than separated from them. A deep overhang added two further advantages: Easy access to an ample sheltered outdoor space, expanding the useable footprint while at the same time reducing heat gain on the larger glazed surfaces.

From the exterior, a large, leaf-like, biophilic roof predominates as one approaches the building. Like a leaf’s drip-tip, an elegant scupper guides rainwater to a shallow pool, celebrating simple natural processes rather than concealing them.