A month ago I posted this piece about the the start of the journey to move the Robert Venturi Lieb House from the Jersey shore to the north shore of Long Island. The beach cottage, which had been in danger of demolition, has been purchased by Deborah Sarnoff and Robert Gotkin, who plan to use it as a guest house to their own Venturi designed home. On Friday it succesfully completed the second leg of its journey from Manhattan's South Street Seaport to Glen Cove NY, a move that was documented both by news teams and by cameras for a forthcoming film Learning from Bob and Denise by James Venturi, son of the architect.
You can see the whole move in a New York Times slideshow and read the rest of the article here.
There has been a lot of discussion on architecture blogs about whether this is a judicious move, if the removal costs are justified in a recession and whether modernist beach houses should be preserved. I think you know which side of the argument I come down on but I'm interested to hear what you think. If you had the means to undertake such an endeavour, would you do it?
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Lieb House finds its new home
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5 comments:
Yup, I would.
Many people were employed in the moving of the house. The house didn't end up in a landfill and the owners will put it to good use. I think it's wonderful. Can't wait to do a drive-by.Priscilla
I'm all for it :-) Sure, it's a lot of money and work. But if you can afford it and you're saving a house from demolition, then why not move it?! :-)
Kelly @ DesignTies
I agree with all Priscilla's points. Besides, it sounds like it may have cost less to move it than to build a new structure, so where's the gripe?
This is a good plan for everyone.
It is hard to justify, but if you can do it.......... They saved an historic piece of architecture and they put people to work. I never heard of something like that before although it sure does sound like the best way considering where it was moving to and the area that it had to go through. I haven't heard anything about the results of the move. I wonder how the house survived the trip and how it's doing in it's new home.
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