the gerald luss house

by gerald luss (1955)

i discovered this house on instagram in 2022. a photo of someone in The Bathtub (if you know, you know, and if you don’t, you are in for a treat) came up on my explore page and i immediately became obsessed with it. once i realized you could actually stay at the house, i kept that in the back of my mind until the perfect moment came up. a whole year later, in the summer of 2023, i won an auction for a set of russell woodard sculptura chairs that needed to be picked up in new jersey. you know what’s close to new jersey? new york. and you know what’s in new york? the gerald luss house.

so i booked my stay and invited my mom to come with me. partially because i needed her car to fit the chairs and i was scared of staying in a house that is like 90% windows by myself, but also because if anyone shares my love of architecture, it’s her. our text messages to each other are pretty much entirely zillow links. we once took a trip to the poconos to trespass at an abandoned honeymoon resort. you probably get the point by now, but she also used to work at an architecture firm (that’s where she met my dad.) so, she arguably knows more about all of this than i do.

our trip began with a night at the james bradley, a cute little boutique hotel, which is my one and only jersey shore recommendation. then we picked up my chairs and headed to ossining, where the gerald luss house is located.

one thing i knew about the house before arriving is that at a certain time of day, there is a skylight that does something very special. on our drive in, my mom and i couldn’t stop talking about it. do you think it does that all year around?? do you think we’ll see it?? did he put the skylight there knowing it would do that or was it just a coincidence?? i may not know the answers to all of those questions, but i do know that we arrived at the exact right time and got to see this as soon as we walked in the door:

our reaction was similar to what i imagine a stan meeting their favorite celebrity would be, like this was the most i have fan-girled over anything, ever. and it was completely justified and i will not be apologizing for it. and i would do it all over again.

we had the whole house to ourselves for 3 nights. there was no tour guide telling us not to touch anything, so we really went wild in there. and by wild i mean, we spent like 20 minutes flipping every single light switch to see all of the possible lighting options.

but since this wasn’t a traditional tour with someone telling me all about luss and his house, i had to do some research myself. i found out that he was in his early 20s when he designed this house. he only lived in it for 3 years, with his wife at the time. during those 3 years, he was designing the interiors for the time & life building in midtown. if you are unfamiliar with the building, it was used as inspiration for the set of mad men. he’s most known for his corporate commissions, but was also always working on residential projects. i’m dying to see what any of his other residential works look like but can’t find anything about them online.

if you want to learn more about luss, i really loved this interview with him.

the house is currently owned by maureen flaherty and her husband, rick. they’ve owned it for over 20 years now and raised their four kids there. they started renting out the house a few years ago and also use it for events, photoshoots, art shows, etc.

i think what i really love about this house is that it is kind of a perfect mix between the more modernist, international style houses (i.e. mies’ farnsworth house/koenig’s stahl house) and the more quintessential mid-century modern houses. from the outside, you see the steel beams and giant glass walls but once inside, you’re greeted with the warmth of the wood paneling on the walls and ceiling and multiple types of stone used throughout the house. i can see why maureen and rick wanted to raise their kids here. it just feels like home.

as you know, i’m most excited about kitchens and bathrooms and, boy, was this house made for me in that regard. i actually do not have the words to explain how much i love those rooms in this house. being able to experience them as if i lived in the house, not just as a visitor walking through, was truly something i will remember forever. i’ve never taken a better bath or shower in my life and probably never will.

i think part of what i love the most about the kitchen and bathrooms (along with literally everything else about them…) is luss’ use of color throughout. this is one of the only houses that i’ve toured/stayed in that uses color in this way. the kitchen cabinets are just so special, i wish i knew everything about them and how they came to be.

when i eventually remodel the bathrooms in my house, i will absolutely be using this same tile… and getting this same sink… and making this same tub… and putting in this same skylight…

i really could go on forever about how much i love everything about this house. my mom and i still regularly talk about it and how much we want to go back one day. if you’re ever in the area, i guarantee you will not regret staying here (and i’m not getting anything in return to say this or make this post.) there’s also tons of other stuff around there that i’d recommend. we went to russel wright’s manitoga and saw another perfect bathtub (will make a post about that soon.) it’s a 20 minute drive from the usonia historic district. and a little farther out is philip johnson’s glass house and the james rose center. you could even fly into JFK and spend a night at the TWA hotel before driving upstate.

before i go – you probably noticed this post was all film photos. that’s because i got a new iphone right before this trip and was still figuring out how to use the stupid new camera that i hate. when i was going through all my photos, the film ones i took just looked so much better than the iphone ones. i may not have captured every little detail on film but i think they portray the essence of the house quite nicely. and now that i’ve worked out the kinks of the new iphone camera, i’ve got an excuse to go back and maybe never leave…

xoxo