LaGuardia Design Group | ‘Contemporary Gardens of the Hamptons’, w/ Forward by Alastair Gordon

Contemporary Gardens of the Hamptons

LaGuardia Design Group 1990-2020

By Christopher LaGuardia

Foreword by Alastair Gordon

“There’s something about the [Hamptons] landscape that carries its own memory—in the watery light, the bayberry and scrub oak—providing a sense of continuity. In their stewardship and respect for the native environment, LaGuardia Design Group channels that memory toward a more resilient and enduring philosophy of design.”

–– Alastair Gordon 

The first monograph to present the work of LaGuardia Design Group, a highly regarded landscape architecture firm specializing in contemporary residential design in the Hamptons.

Founded by Christopher LaGuardia in 1990, LaGuardia Design Group is immersed in the fragile landscape of the Hamptons, both its woods and meadows and the dramatic shoreline along the Atlantic. Contemporary Gardens of the Hamptons: LaGuardia Design Group 1990-2020 is the first book to explore the work of this celebrated landscape architecture firm.

LaGuardia Design Group (LDG) is committed to expressing the character of each of its sites and has been consistently recognized for its environmental stewardship, historic references, and meticulously designed outdoor spaces. The focus of the firm’s mission has been to merge elegant architecture, design, and nature through creative grading, planting native species, and stitching structures into the rolling contours of eastern Long Island.

Contemporary Gardens of the Hamptons is organized by project, featuring 21 of LDG’s residential works in Sagaponack, Southampton, Montauk, Water Mill, and Bridgehampton. Notable examples include the rebuilding and restoration of the dunescape surrounding the Perlbinder house—one of Norman Jaffe’s best known residential works—which had been damaged by storms; the reconfiguration and transformation of a relatively flat fourteen-acre site into an open-air museum housing a world-class art collection; and an oceanfront property comprised of three separate austere structures artfully positioned so as to blend in with the sandy, swelling site, allowing each building to inhabit its own micro-environment.

An acknowledged leader in sustainable design, LDG’s focus is to create a seamless connection between architecture and landscape through innovative grading, utilizing native plants, and bridging sites with their natural contours and context. As a result, the distinctions between structure and nature often dissolve altogether as they appear to be one and the same.

Contemporary Gardens of the Hamptons includes a lively introduction by well-known Hamptons-based architectural and cultural historian and critic Alastair Gordon, which gives a brief history of LDG and the East End of Long Island and places the firm’s work within the context of the area’s ever-evolving landscapes. With 200 stunning images, site plans, sketches, and engaging text exploring LDG’s approach, this new book offers insight into the elements that make up extraordinary landscapes. 

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