Most of Horace Gifford's (1932-1992) work was realised in the holiday escape 'Fire Island'. It is on this island that Gifford has between sixty to seventy modernist residences built from the sixties to the eighties. Gifford was openly gay and unfortunately died from AIDS in 1992.

Gifford was responsible for the modernist transformation of New York's Fire Island. These homes entice with intimacy rather than ostentation. They are generally modest in size, artfully wedded to their sites and wrought in now-weathered wood and glass. Though critically praised and published during his lifetime, Horace Gifford is now an obscure figure outside of the small coastal communities where he focused his efforts.

Recently the forgotten mid-century modernist architecture of Horace Gifford has come back into mainstream media through the publication of a book chronicling the architects work.