HOUSE TOUR: Famous Architect’s Only North Fork Creation For Sale

One of the rarest designs from renowned Brooklyn-born architect Andrew Geller, who died on Christmas day at 87, is currently on the real estate market.

The $450,000 three-bedroom home is located on the corner of Grand Avenue and Knollwood Lane in Mattituck. The house was built in 1960 and was used by the designer for one year before John and Auriele Stack bought the house in 1962, first as a summer residence, then a full-time home after an addition — also designed by Geller — in 1982.

The original barn-like structure features a one-of-a-kind great room, with angled walls, cathedral ceilings and plenty of natural light through huge windows — almost as is someone grabbed the roof of a log cabin and stretched the entire structure toward the sky. Only one bedroom occupies the ground floor, and the second floor consists of a spacious loft space and a small, built-in bed. A deck overlooks the woodsy neighborhood.

“It will remind you of a tree house,” said Nicholas Planamento, a broker at in Mattituck, who gave North Fork Patch a tour of the unique home.

Though there is a standard subdivision along Knollwood Lane now, the Geller house was one of a few houses on the block, nestled in the woods — and there may have even been a view of the nearby Mattituck Inlet at the time of its construction.

“But this house is unique because it was one of the few Geller built in a non-dune setting,” he said.

Geller was part of the first generation of architects to emulate the naturalistic style of Frank Lloyd Wright, the father of “organic architecture" in the early part of the 20th century. Geller spent 35 years as the principal designer and vice president of Raymond Loewy Associates — pioneers of industrial design, and helped decorate landmark New York City buildings such as the World Trade Center and the Lever House on Park Avenue.

But on the East End, he is probably most famous for his simple but eye-catching beach houses like the Diamond House (aka the Perlroth House) in East Hampton.

“The houses were very modernistic and low maintenance  — some almost like a lean-to, focusing on a simpler, subsistence-style living,” Planamento said.

Mr. and Mrs. Stack were both artists in their own way — he was a painter and she a quilter. Mrs. Stack was a New York City journalist and he was a high school principal in Nassau County. Both were very involved in local civic groups like the and were parents to six daughters. Mr. Stack died four years ago and Ms. Stack lived alone at the Geller house until about 18 months before her death in late August of 2011, when she moved to

The spacious “attic” of the 1982 addition served as an art studio for Mr. Stack, and Planamento said he could see this room also serving as another bedroom. The kitchen of the addition houses an industrial-style range, and the addition’s master bedroom has a full bathroom and laundry room (the original master bedroom has a smaller connecting bathroom).

This rare creation from Geller remains one of the gems of North Fork real estate, Planamento said.

“In 1962, this had to be the envy of every Mattituck person, with its modernistic look,” he said. “And today, it is still quite different and still feels very ‘60s. Geller houses were more common in the Hamptons because of the core group of intelligencia playing off of each other. But on the North Fork, places like these just don’t exist.”

Geller House specs:

Post Modern
2 Stories
Built 1960
2,000 Square Feet

3 Bedrooms
2.5 Baths
Extra Rooms
Full Basement
1 Fireplace
Garage: 2.5 sp

0.87 acres
Room For Pool
Taxes: $9,770

Contact Nicholas Planamento, associate broker, Town and Country Real Estate, at 631-298-0600 x 103 or 631-948-0143, e-mail: nplanamento@1townandcountry.com