Getting to Know Easthampton's LongHouse Reserve
This article was written by Nancy Prager Kamel, Chairwoman of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States (AFPC-USA).
LongHouse is a treasure hidden in plain sight! The late textile designer and author Jack Lenor Larsen set up the LongHouse Reserve as a home, sculpture garden and arboretum in Easthampton, Long Island.
Larsen initially bought the land as a way to prevent encroachments but he later developed a “magical” landscaped sculpture garden surrounding the house and opened it to the public in 1992. This reserve which includes LongHouse was built in collaboration with the architect Charles Forberg and has 13,000-square-feet (1,200 m2) of floorspace spread across 18 spaces and four floors. Its overall design was inspired by the seventh century Ise Shinto shrine in Japan.
The building, which is raised on stilts, has divided the spaces through the use of sliding panels that showcase Larsen's fabrics—the tools that anchored his success. The house also features his collection of historical and contemporary crafts, including works by Edward Wormley, Lucie Rie, and Wharton Esherick. It includes a glass chandelier by Dale Patrick Chihuly, an American well known in the field of blown glass.
Larsen’s works are preserved in the collections of major museums around the world. In 1969, Larsen co-curated “Wall Hangings,” a textile and fiber art exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. His is one of only two design houses to have been the subject of an exhibition at the Palais du Louvre, which hosted a one-man retrospective of his works in 1981. His textile exhibits are part of the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Art Institute of Chicago, Musee des Arts Decoratif at the Louvre in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Some of the private collections of his works are at American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s house in Fallingwater, and Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen’s Miller House.
The 17 acres that surrounded it were planned as a beautiful and complex framework, each with their own luxurious and natural plantings. Embedded in the lush gardens you find an elegant maze of surprise and memorable sculptures including works by Willem de Kooning, Sol LeWitt, Brian Hunt, Shin Sang-ho, and Yoko Ono.
The plant selection is themed around the color red and includes plants as varied as “Lord Baltimore” hibiscus and Acer palmatum hibiscus and Acer palmatum “Sango kaku.”—as you become one with this environment, your treasured visions await!
OUR MISSION
“LongHouse Reserve encourages living with art in all forms. Founded by Jack Lenor Larsen, its collections, gardens, sculpture and programs reflect world cultures to inspire a creative life.”
