This program accompanied an exhibition guest-curated by Alastair Gordon for Guild Hall that explored themes he later explored further in his 2001 book, “Weekend Utopia: Modern Living in the Hamptons.” The show ran from June 26 to Aug. 1, 1999. Mr. Gordon, who grew up summering in Amagansett, will give a Tom Twomey Series lecture at the East Hampton Library at 5 p.m. next Thursday on an updated and expanded 25th anniversary edition of the book, “Weekend Utopia: A Century of Modern Living in the Hamptons.”
The Guild Hall exhibition, which coincided with the 1999 Guild Hall benefit party, focused on the period from 1960 to 1973 and featured “sketches, blueprints, models, photographs, and other illustrations of the seminal architectural works of the era.” Programming in support of it included “lectures and panel discussions, a film series, and an architectural excursion.” Coverage noted that Mr. Gordon chose “a select group of fifteen architects” to illustrate the work from that time.
In an article in The East Hampton Star about the opening, he described the rise of second-home ownership, with detailed statistics, pointing out that construction of such homes jumped from an average annual of 20,000 units in the 1940s to 55,000 units in the 1960s. He also considered the ways in which the divide between rural and urban areas began to blur during those years, along with the impact of the proximity of New York’s fashion and media cultures.
Anne Surchin, a fellow architectural historian, in reviewing the exhibition for The Southampton Press, laid out the transitions it explored, along with the thought-provoking questions it raised about scale and taste.
Mr. Gordon’s gift for language and layered cultural analysis returns in the expanded new edition of “Weekend Utopia,” and his Twomey Series lecture, “Prosperous Bohemians: The Rise and Fall of Weekend Utopia,” promises equally important and fascinating insights. Copies will be available for purchase and signing.
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Andrea Meyer, a librarian and archivist, is head of collection for the Long Island Collection.
