The Hamptons have long been synonymous with glamour — whether that’s posh events, trendy must-be-seen-at restaurants or big-ticket real estate. And there’s no end to that trend, helped by shows such as the Netflix series “Million Dollar Beach House” (2020) and “Selling the Hamptons,” now streaming on Max, which keep a high gloss on the Hamptons’ image.
But there’s one person who wishes to tone that all down — ironically, someone known as a powerhouse in the white-hot Hamptons development landscape.
That would be Kristen Farrell. She and her former husband, Joe, were the team behind Farrell Building Company, a leading development and design force in Hamptons. Hundreds of their spec homes dot the East End and beyond — built according to a formula, but with the singular stamp that Kristen brought to each project.
A devotion to details
“Joe was excellent at site layout and the fundamental flow of the home design plan, and I would do all the details so that each home had its own distinct personality and design,” Farrell says. “I really wanted to imprint our brand with the ability to bring a unique vision to each home.”
Unique, indeed. Farrell drew on her own life experiences to fuel that vision: raising three children and two dogs, and moving 12 times in eight years. It gave her, she says, an “inherent understanding of the Hamptons lifestyle, having lived it in different ways.”
The Farrells divorced in 2022, but that didn’t end Kristen’s love for the business. She had already applied her considerable experience to launching her own design firm focused on the softer side of construction — all things interior that make a house a home.
And though she has developed a reputation and expertise as a lifestyle designer, she is, first and foremost, a boots-on-the-ground construction strategist keenly focused on the hundreds of decisions behind making a home functional as well as beautiful.
Farrell credits her early career as a lobbyist and a site-location specialist for national companies wanting to do business on Long Island for her tenacity and attention to detail. She honed a skill set that included policy research and regulation, became adept at navigating municipal and zoning red tape and built a team of professional and trade experts to get the job done.
“That background of lobbying and logistics, learning specific communication skills and representing clients to government entities gave me an amazing foundation,” she says. “It really taught me how to make hundreds of decisions a day and communicate effectively in the field — whether I’m talking to someone who works at the municipality, the plumber or the client of a $20 million house.”
She became so adept at straddling the intricacies of construction strategy and home design, that she coined the term “construction design” to describe the skills she brought into her current endeavor, Kristen Farrell & Co.
Vision quest
Farrell launched her new business with 219 Sagg Main St., a three-acre compound in Sagaponack Village. The nearly 12,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom, 13-bath traditionally styled home was built in 2009 by Michael Davis, but never completed or occupied.
“The second that I pulled in the driveway, I got the feeling I get when I just know [something] is good … and this is timeless, classic architecture,” she says. “The foundation and the framing were so solid.”
Farrell bought it out of foreclosure in 2022 and completely rehabbed it, including restoring two vintage barns on the site. The eight-month renovation turned an abandoned project into what she calls a “classic transitional modern Hampton home with a neutral color palette that feels inviting and calming.”
“It was like a gift that we could walk into this home, reimagine it, move a few walls around, finish the unfinished space and bring new life into additional outbuildings,” she says.
The reimagined compound sold in September 2023 for $27,500,000 — but not before Leonardo DiCaprio rented it for a weekend with a group of friends. (Local media reports note he obeyed the rules and left the house as pristine as he found it.)
The project was also the testing ground for a concept she’s hoping will be a key component of her business model: partnerships with makers of “products for living” that include furnishings, bedding, appliances and customized home gym equipment — even paint color collections for Sherwin-Williams imbued by her aesthetic and personal back stories.
For the Sagg Main project, Farrell sought out Technogym as the exclusive provider for the room she describes as more of a wellness space than a gym.
“I immediately saw its potential to feel like an extension of the home,” she says. “I didn’t want to transition to a cold porcelain or concrete tile floor. I wanted all warm colors and to make an inviting space … less like an industrial gym and more specifically like a wellness space. The wellness conversation is a huge piece of what I like to integrate into the home.”
Kristen’s crystal ball
She’s taking that concept on the road and broadening it in a current venture in Stevensville, Mont., a town of about 2,000 people 30 miles south of Missoula. An avid hiker, Farrell had been trekking in Glacier National Park the past decade, fell in love with the beauty and lifestyle and looked for an opportunity to leverage that in a construction project. She found that in the Bitterroot Valley, known for its diverse outdoor lifestyle and, more recently, as the backdrop for the “Yellowstone” series. At the end of 2023, she closed on a 20-acre property with a four-bedroom house, a river and a pond at the base of a main hiking trail, incorporating the broader wellness concept of the great outdoors. The renovations were slated for completion last August, with plans to furnish it in context of the locale.
The experience so far—and so far from the glittery beaches of the Hamptons — has exceeded her expectations.
“I definitely plan on developing more out there, but with the same intention I’ve always brought to my work,” she says. “Not just throw product into the marketplace, but to bring a unique vision to that market one project by one.”
Farrell says she’s proud to be one of the few female builders out there and to have gained respect from the tradesmen and all other stakeholders in the complicated process of design-to-build. But, in the end, she says, it’s her vision for the end product as a home for someone that drives her.
“For me, it’s about the feeling that comes from the intention at the start of the process and carried through with authenticity ’til the end. That’s what I’m about personally and I really want that to show in my work product.”
