Winner: Tamara Magel Design
Good cooks create memorable fare, and good designers develop recipes for success, no matter what the challenge. For this Sagaponack kitchen, designer Tamara Magel whipped up a five-star confection anchored by a pink-veined marble that serves as the space’s pièce de résistance. Judge Bryan Young marvels at how the marble “elevates the bold kitchen, making it both surprising and elegant,” while judge T. R. Pescod says simply, “It makes me smile.” A substantial white concrete island within easy reach of a sparkling brass range and a deep farm sink “is a lovely touch,” adds judge Jayne Michaels.
Finalist: HRH Design Group
This project, raves judge Joan Michaels, is everything a kitchen should be: “spacious and clean, soft and airy, with good materials and lighting. It will stand the test of time.” Designed for a busy family that loves to cook, the multifunctional space is kitted out with ample room for making and baking bread, a separate butler’s pantry, a beverage center, and an adjacent dining area. An oversize gray Carrara marble island meshes beautifully with cabinetry in white-lacquered rough-cut white oak, and the entire kitchen is bathed in natural light, thanks to a surfeit of windows.
Finalist: Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects
After years of living in this house in the Amagansett dunes, its owners decided to make the kitchen the focal point, given their penchant for cooking and entertaining. What was once the dining room has now been transformed into an expanded kitchen area incorporating a long bleached-walnut island positioned as a kind of bridge to an adjacent courtyard for alfresco dining. “The bleached walnut,” comments judge Melanie Roy, “is the perfect complementary material for a home in this location, and the ample built-in shelves seamlessly merge the cooking and entertaining areas into a cohesive whole.”
