harry bates
harry bates grew up lake city fl completing a bachelors in architecture in 1952 from nscu school of design. He moved to new York city in 1955 to skidmore owings & merrill, working with gordon bunshaft, and left there to start bates architects in 1965. while Living in new york, bates purchased a piece of land on Fire island in 1961, and built a 600-square-foot one-bedroom house constructed from rough-cut cypress. he happily stayed there for 10 years until work projects took him to the hamptons, and In 1970 built a house in shinnecock hills, southampton
by this time bates was looking to move away from the noise and bright lights of new york city for greener pastures. In i980 he relocated the firm to water mill in part due to his increasing east end business
in 2016, hc&g’s august 15th story on his legacy bates was quoted as saying
“i’ve always had an innate understanding of how to enjoy living with nature. houses and buildings should never intrude on the surroundings—they should enhance them.. we honor nature by respecting what’s there. people come to the hamptons to live outside, and that’s always at the forefront of my mind. bates retired in 2017 to fernandina beach florida.
projects
1968 - recover house, east hampton
1981 - the andre dupuis house, east hampton
1989 - the harry and linda macklowe house, east hampton
1994 - the john rand house, water mill