Posted on Tue, Mar. 10, 2009
Quirky, iconic Lieb House to set sail
The ’60s beach shack that narrowly escaped demolition will go by barge
to its new home.
By Inga Saffron
Inquirer Architecture Critic
After being stuck in limbo on a Barnegat Light, N.J., pier for nearly
six weeks, the iconic 1960s beach shack designed by Robert Venturi and
Denise Scott Brown is clear to set sail at high tide Thursday morning
for a new home on the exclusive north shore of Long Island.
The building, which is known as the Lieb House and is considered to be
among the Philadelphia architects’ most significant early works,
narrowly escaped demolition by a developer in January when Barnegat
Light officials agreed to let its adoptive owners store it in a
harbor-side parking lot. That reprieve gave them time to secure
permission to float the quirky house to their property in Glen Cove,
overlooking the Manhattan skyline.
The new owners, Deborah S. Sarnoff and Robert Gotkin, finally obtained
a crucial authorization last week from New York’s Department of
Environmental Conservation, clearing the way for the 95-mile ocean
journey from Long Beach Island to Long Island, said Jim Venturi, the
architects’ son, who is organizing the move on their behalf.
The state agency had sought assurances that the couple’s retaining
wall on Long Island Sound would not be damaged when the house was
transferred from barge to land. Once the agency gave its consent, the
town of Glen Cove quickly issued a building permit, the last of the
necessary approvals, said Gotkin, a plastic surgeon.
"All we need now is calm winds and calm waters," Gotkin added.
Jim Venturi said a moving team from Wolfe House & Building Co. planned
to launch the Lieb House on an ocean-class barge from the Barnegat
Light pier at precisely 9 a.m. Thursday to take advantage of high
tide.
Two tugboats will ease the 1,835-square-foot structure through the
Barnegat inlet, then head north along the New Jersey coast. After
spending the night docked in Staten Island, the shore house will get
its first glimpse of the Manhattan skyline just after dawn Friday.
Venturi has arranged an early-morning party at Manhattan’s South
Street Seaport so his parents and interested architecture buffs can
wave at the little house as it makes its way under the Brooklyn
Bridge, sometime between 7 and 9 a.m.
Most likely, the crowd will be able to see two of the house’s most
distinctive features: an immense black number 9 next to the front door
and a sailboat-shaped side window. Despite its architectural pedigree,
the house is famous for distilling the essence of a Jersey Shore house
into its boxy form. It is a curriculum standard in many architecture
schools.
Robert Venturi, who delighted in vernacular architecture, originally
described it as a "bold little ugly banal box." It took a while,
however, for Barnegat residents to take a liking to the plain design
and oversize graphic. Its original owners, Judith and Nathaniel Lieb,
sold it not long after it was finished in 1969, supposedly because of
disputes with their neighbors.
By the time developer Michael Ziman purchased the property as a
tear-down, the Lieb House was an antique by Long Beach Island
standards. Although it has four bedrooms, it is a fraction of the size
of the current crop of Shore mansions.
Ziman told Jim Venturi he could have the house for free if he arranged
to move it off the site by the Feb. 2 closing date. Venturi initially
despaired of finding someone to foot the moving bill, but at the last
moment, he found a near-perfect match in Gotkin and Sarnoff.
The couple, who run a Park Avenue dermatology and cosmetic-surgery
practice, not only live in a house designed by the elder Venturi and
Scott Brown – the Kalpakjian House – but they also own enough land to
accommodate a second structure. They intend to use the Barnegat beach
shack as a guest house.
"It’s getting a sibling," said Jim Venturi.
"When Jimmy called, I really thought it was a joke," recalled
Sarnoff. She readily agreed to help preserve the house, even though
she had no idea of the complications ahead. "I thought we’d split it
in half and move it by truck," she said.
The couple soon learned that the house was too tall to fit under the
overhead telephone cables. But they persevered, even as the costs and
complexity mounted.
Sarnoff said she had learned to love the work of Venturi and Scott
Brown. About 10 years ago, she stumbled upon the Kalpakjian house and
fell in love with it, even though she knew nothing then about the
architects. She was devastated when she lost a bidding war for the
property, which was completed in 1986. She bid at two more sales
before she succeeded in buying the house, which sits on a 2.5-acre
promontory with spectacular views of Manhattan and the Long Island
Sound.
Now, she and Gotkin will own two houses by the Philadelphia
architects, representing two distinct periods in their career. While
the Lieb House still shows the modernist influence of Le Corbusier,
the Kalpakjian House takes its cues from America’s shingle-style,
ocean-front villas.
Both structures clearly have salt in their bones. Because they were
designed to take advantage of water views, their living rooms are on
the second floors. So even though the Lieb House will lose its iconic
address of 9 E. 30th St., it will continue to exist in a seaside
environment.
"It’s not the same context," acknowledged Denise Scott Brown. "But
it’s a wonderful context."
Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or
isaffron@phillynews.com.