Ben Krupinski Builder

Ben Krupinski Builder is an East Hampton general contractor whose South Fork record since 1986 includes the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, the renovation of Guild Hall in East Hampton, the children's wing of the East Hampton Library, the rebuilding of Scoville Hall in Amagansett and the restoration of the George Fowler House in Springs, according to 27east. The firm builds architect-designed houses; it is the builder, not the designer.

Ben Krupinski died on June 2, 2018. As of June 30 that year, two longtime employees, Stratton Schellinger and Ray Harden, acquired the company, which they said had about 150 carpenters, offices in East Hampton (its headquarters), Southampton and Old Greenwich, Connecticut, and one or two foremen and supervisors on each job. An earlier version of the firm operated as G.B.D. Builders.

For a buyer, the name on a house tells you who built it, not who designed it. A Krupinski-built house has an architect of record, and the two attributions should be stated separately.

The documented public work

The public buildings are the clearest record of the firm's range, because each is a named building with a public owner:

• Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill — built by the firm. See Water Mill.
• Guild Hall, East Hampton — renovated by the firm. Guild Hall sits in the Village's Main Street Historic District.
• East Hampton Library children's wing — completed in 2014; 27east reports Krupinski donated millions of dollars of labor.
• Scoville Hall, Amagansett — rebuilt. See Amagansett.
• George Fowler House, Springs — restored. See Springs.

The list spans new institutional construction, renovation inside a historic district and restoration of an older house. That range is the useful information: the firm has worked under historic-district review as well as on new buildings.

Private houses

The firm's private houses are, by its own account, mostly built for clients who want privacy. The Research Desk lists a private house only where a named source attributes that specific house to the firm, and none of the sources opened for this page does so without naming the owner. The page will add houses by road once each is documented.

What a builder attribution means

Builder versus architect. On an architect-designed house, the architect's drawings set the design; the builder executes them and resolves field conditions. Value from the builder's name rests on execution: framing, envelope, millwork and systems. Ask for the permit set, the specifications, the contract and change orders, and the warranty.

Ownership changes. A house built before mid-2018 was built under the founder; later work is under the current owners. Warranty and service obligations sit with whichever entity signed the contract. Confirm which.

Historic work. Where the firm renovated or restored a building under Village or Town historic review, the certificates of appropriateness and approved drawings are part of the record a buyer should receive. See Renovating and rebuilding.

Considering a house built by the firm?

Request a property brief that confirms the builder and architect of record from the permit file, reviews the contract and warranty history, and places the house against comparable sales.