Fire Island modernist icon Pyramid House asks $3.3M
Photo credit: Daniel Rodriguez
The home known as Pyramid House is immediately recognizable even among the modernist homes, many of them memorable local landmarks with “names” of their own that have defined the Fire Island Pines since the 1960s. Designed by Buenos Aires-born architect Julio Kaufman, the house at 443 Sail Walk at the western edge of the Fire Island National Seashore was inspired by the sweeping vistas that reveal the shore’s protected dunes. Asking $3.3 million, the house has been more recently updated within Kaufman’s iconic design by a series of creative owners.
Kaufman built the home in 1961 for a nephew of J.P. Morgan’s great nephew, John Goodwin, an architect, arts patron, writer, and prolific party host who entertained the likes of Christopher Isherwood, Paul Cadmus, and Tennessee Williams.
As recently reported by Curbed, Kaufman told a local reporter that the pyramid he designed would offer the ability to “stand in the middle of the living room and be able to look everywhere on the island.” Kaufman’s original design was later augmented to add more bedroom space and a wraparound deck.
Playwright Paul Rudnick bought the home in 2001 and redesigned the home to replace the shingles of Kaufman’s original pyramid with a glass and steel frame and add two guest rooms and a saltwater pool. Rudnick sold the house in 2013 for just under $1 million to Broadway clothing designer Jeff Mahshie.
As 6sqft previously recounted, when the current owner, real estate agent Glenn Rice, first saw the house while on a walk in the windswept Fire Island Pines, he was reminded of the I.M. Pei-designed pyramid at the Louvre set against the backdrop of the Atlantic shore.
In 2018, after touring the house with a friend, he was able to purchase the mid-century gem for $1.6 million. Rice, who is also a vintage modern furniture dealer, furnished the home from his personal collection of 1960s and ’70s pieces. Rice briefly listed the home, which was also a popular summer rental, for $6.5 million in 2022.
On the eastern edge of the Pines, bordered by protected land, the 2,100-square-foot home remains an icon and a private refuge after standing for over 50 years.
The home’s current three-bedroom configuration begins on the lower level with a sprawling primary suite that includes a dressing area, bath, and private home office. This decadent space opens to face the pool and dunes beyond.
Esteban Gomez of Compass has the listing.
“The remarkable thing about the Pyramid House isn’t really the pyramid—it’s what the shape allows you to experience from inside. The architecture gives itself over to the dunes, sky and horizon, and more than 60 years after it was built, it still feels radical,” Gomez told 6sqft.
“The opportunity to become the next steward of a house this important to Fire Island’s modernist history is incredibly rare.”
[Listing details: 443 Sail Walk by Esteban Gomez of Compass]
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