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The James Brooks Studio
On August 31,1954 Hurricane Carol swept Long Island with 125 mph wind gusts which blew the house and studio off its site in Montauk into Long Island Sound. Charlotte Park and James Brooks had set up their Montauk studio in 1949 when they moved from Manhattan to East Hampton to be near their friends Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, with whom they had shared studios in New York. Jeffrey Potter immediately got a barge to float the surviving Brooks’ house/studio from Montauk to Springs at Louse Point. They then trucked the structures to 128 Neck Path where their 11-acre property was waiting.
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James and Charlotte thought purposefully about the placement of those old fishermen’s shacks they had been using in Montauk. They created an opening in the center of the linear property with a driveway/path from Neck Path slightly curving to
the east side of the house and continuing several hundred feet creating a curatable oval natural area to the east, and open to the west. They placed their house facing south and added a slight extension out that was mostly glass, so they could view their new space as well as a relocated building as Charlotte’s studio, at the far part of the curatable zone. James’ studio was the Living Room. Opposite the southeast corner of the house where it meets the wide path, they put a dwarf Beech tree, creating a ‘gateway’ to their view, their little world with beautiful planting. Artist Mike Solomon, who spent a great deal of time with the Brooks’ growing up, has said that the two often ate lunch under that beech tree. Charlotte would walk along the path toward her studio, checking on their garden adding to her journal about the plants and animals she saw.
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©1991 Hans Namuth Estate, Courtesy Center for Creative Photography
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In 1959-1960 James built his new studio on the west side of the path directly south of the house, opposite Charlotte’s studio. This new studio was thoughtfully designed by James, to have the most perfect light an artist could want. He had to use inexpensive materials, but it had to be perfect. His clear and purposeful thinking made it so. The Studio is 32 feet long with the 
north facing side 24 feet wide, the walls are 12 feet tall with the 2 rows of skylights above taking it to 18 feet on the north side angled at 72 degrees to capture as much north light as possible. The light reflected off the slanted ceiling as well as the walls and the floor, and infused the entire working area of the studio. The light was diffused so evenly that the studio was a perfect place to work. There were no shadows. It is no wonder that Frederick Keisler, the experimental Architect who designed Peggy Guggenheim’s “Art of this Century” gallery in New York (1945) said that James’s studio was among the most intelligent designs for an artist’s studio he had ever seen. The 1968 Hans Namuth image of James Brooks sitting in his studio shows its wonder in full glory.
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James designed his studio in 1959. It included a south side drying rack for paintings and 4 wall panels 4 feet by 5 feet which were hinged at the top like the panels in Paul Rudolph’s famous 1952 Walker Guest House in Florida. In 1958, when Rudolph was designing the Yale A&A building, he gave a talk at the Signa Gallery in East Hampton. Solomon has said that Brooks frequented the gallery, and he most likely saw Rudolph and images of those panels at that time. The only glass in the studio was on the north wall, while the blank panels on the South and West walls were positioned to access paint drying racks, cross ventilation on hot days, and easy access for odd sized materials and so forth.
For over a decade, since its purchase in 2013 through the Community Preservation Fund and subsequent designation as a historic site in 2014, this Landmarked Studio along with the home and two small structures have been debated by the East Hampton Town Board as to their destiny. Community support is essential to the future of this publicly owned site.
Contact the Town Board members and let them know how important it is for East Hampton to save this Studio and the environment that Charlotte and James created so that we can all share in and enjoy its historic architectural and natural beauty and significance. Its right on a pathway for us to share.
— Jonathan S Foster, Architect
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