Round Dune

Round Dune was developed in the early 1960s by Lawrence and Louise Snell on oceanfront land bought from William Hamilton Swan, according to the co-op's own history. The 4.7-acre property cost $800,000, and construction of the four two-story buildings, totaling about 56,000 square feet, cost $700,000. In the early years there was no co-op board: the Snells personally approved buyers, and Lawrence Snell, a Wall Street investment banker, drew many of the first shareholders from his financial contacts.

The architect was James Albert Evans, a Connecticut Modernist who studied with Louis Kahn at Yale, working with co-designer Olivier de Messieres. Architectural Forum described the complex in June 1961 as four wheel-shaped buildings of 19 apartments each, with every apartment a wedge of the circle so that each unit gets water views without looking into its neighbors. The buildings sit above the sand on wood pile foundations, which the co-op credits with helping them withstand storms. After severe erosion in 2018 and 2019, the co-op sought approval from the Southampton Town Trustees to install geocubes to protect the dune in front of the buildings.

Round Dune's history book lists early residents and guests that included former New York City mayors Vincent Impellitteri and Robert F. Wagner Jr., writer Leo Rosten, Broadway producer Herman Levin, film critics Molly Haskell and Andrew Sarris, and visitors such as Peter Lawford and Mel Brooks. Today the co-op describes a multi-generational community in which many families have held apartments for decades.