Upstairs / Downstairs

Shh! Don’t call it a basement within earshot of a real estate broker. It’s the “lower level,” puhleeze. No longer an underground space relegated merely to wine cellars, media rooms, or staff quarters, many lower levels are as fabulous as the rest of the house. In fact, because of local height restrictions (32 feet in most cases), lower levels have become as important to the Hamptons house as hedgerows and hydrangeas. In short, it’s the best way to get more square footage in an area ruled by zoning regulations – because basements, excuse us, lower levels don’t count as part of lot coverage.

With 13-foot ceilings, fireplaces, glass walls, and full height doors leading to terraces, in many cases you’d never suspect you were on a lower level. Yes, you can find pool tables here, but you can also find dining tables, sofas, anything you’d find upstairs.
Though it’s been written up many times, the lower level of builder Joe Farrell’s own Bridgehampton home, Sandcastle, bears mention again. The amazing 10,000 subterranean space has the usual gym, media room and spa, but also boasts racquetball, squash and basketball courts, rock-climbing wall, half-pipe skateboard ramp, karaoke booth, and golf simulator. Did we mention a two-lane bowling alley?
These days bowling alleys are all the rage. Kean Development, the force behind Olde Towne, a luxury development with 10 four-acre-lots under construction in Southampton’s estate section, is putting them in several of its houses along with the usual steam showers, bars, gyms, and sports courts. “After dinner people want to go down to the bar, have a cocktail and bowl,” said company owner John Kean.
Indoor pools are another feature found in South Fork lower levels. Angel View Estate, a North Haven property just listed with Sotheby’s for $65 million, sports a room called the “Grotto” with marble walls, fireplace, night-sky ceiling, and a heated, edgeless, ozone-filtrated pool with swim jet and waterfall.
Ultra glam man caves haven’t gone out of style. Interior designer Kerry Delrose of Delrose Design Group has kitted one out for the Hampton Designer Showhouse, which will be on view at its Bridgehampton location through September it. Describing it as “very James Bond,” he has outfitted it with luxurious materials including Macassar ebony, onyx, and bronze. An “over the top bar” has silver lace doors, hammered nickel sinks and a smoked glass mirror. The de rigueur pool table is lined with a masculine charcoal wool-cashmere blend instead of baize. “It’s not really to play on,” he says. But it sure looks snazzy. There is also a pair of big screen TVs where football players appear life size. “A wife could throw a couple of boxes of chicken wings down there and not see her husband till Sunday,” said Mr. Delrose.
For the “her” version of a downstairs lair, art collector and consultant Cindy Farkas Glanzrock has created a “She Cave” in her Sagaponack lower level. A showcase for art as well as a glam ode to midcentury seduction, it is the go-to spot for the single woman to entertain both friends and dates. A groovy bar, once in her father’s Sutton Place apartment, has the makings for “every cocktail under the sun.” When in deejay mode, she spins records from her collection of ‘78s. When feeling more frisky she will bring out games, including the interactive Dirty Mind Game, that asks provocative questions. Animal print abounds, as does popcorn and “retro candy.” Even the art is fun. Among serious photographs by local marine photographer Stephanie Whiston, are dozens of pizza boxes used as mediums for spray-painted stencils by artist Dave Tree and model subway cars marked with graffiti by LA Roc, both items she gives to friends’ kids “to show them how to collect art.” The room itself is also instructive for kids of all ages on a fabulous way to utilize the lower level.