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Fire Island is a summer beach house in the resort community of the Pines on Fire Island, New York. The typology of the homes in the Pines is recognizable to anyone who has visited an east coast shoreline resort town. It is a builder-driven typology that reflects the pragmatism of these coastal communities and their inhabitants. The "good sense" practicality that allows these homes to be built affordably almost always overtakes the inherent liveliness and natural spirit of the place and creates structures that are dull and predictable.

This house inserts some of the "spirit of the shore" into a "Yankee thriftiness" residential typology. Common detail and material remain, but the volume of the house is expressed as a skin rather than a box-like container. The skin keeps the heat in. Over time, woven cedar boards will assume the same patina as neighboring houses. Large windows are introduced to reveal a luxurious light interior.