Venturi beach house on the move.

[brianac]

Beach house ready to sail to NY from NJ

The economic crisis in the US has meant that house prices are falling, and one lucky couple found a beach house designed by one of their favourite architects for sale for just $1. The only catch is that they will have to pay a further $100,000 (£72,000) to have their home floated across the water from New Jersey to Long Island.

Last Updated: 8:57AM GMT 13 Mar 2009


Workers move a beach house onto a barge Thursday, March. 12, 2009, in Barneget Light, N.J

Robert Gotkin and Deborah Sarnoff, who run a husband-and-wife dermatology and plastic surgery practice in New York, already live in one house designed by architect Robert Venturi, and plan to use the newest addition as a guest cottage.

The house was due to set sail from a marina in Barnegat Light, on Long Beach Island, sometime around 6 pm (2200 GMT) Thursday and arrive in Glen Cove, New York, around noon on Friday after a 95-mile (150-kilometer) waterborne trip.

"We're really excited about this," said Ms Sarnoff, who began researching Venturi and his work after she and her husband moved into a boat-shaped Venturi home on Long Island. "It became an obsession. He really shook things up and broke a lot of conventional ideas."

The house Venturi built in Barnegat Light in 1967 is best known for the huge number 9 on its front, and the sailboat-shaped window on one side.
But new owners recently bought the land it sat on, and planned to tear it down to make way for something newer and bigger. They told the architect's son, Jim Venturi, he could have it for free if he could get it off the land soon.

The Venturis turned to Gotkin and Sarnoff, with whom they had become friendly. They quickly struck a deal and made plans for the voyage.

"This is a wonderful opportunity, that we can get it of the site safely," said Denise Scott Brown, Venturi's wife, who designed it with him. "It became a campaign for a wonderful house that was designed with lots of love. It's very unusual; it looks like a little radio rather than a house."
Robert Venturi said he was concerned that the house might be demolished, but prepared for that possibility.

"Architecture is the most fragile of mediums," he said. "You don't repaint a painting or change sculpture, but architecture often is demolished. I'm just glad it worked out."

The house, which was removed from its original location several weeks ago and stored in a bay-side marina, was jacked up and lifted onto a huge marine barge Friday morning. Work crews had hoped to have it on its way in the morning, but they delayed the departure to take advantage of more favourable tides on Long Island on Friday

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...Y-from-NJ.html

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009

[brianac]

To Save a Venturi House, It Is Moved


The Lieb House, designed by Robert Venturi, traveling under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on its way to Glen Cove, N.Y.

By TAMMY LA GORCE and A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: March 13, 2009

NY TIMES ARTICLE AND SLIDE SHOW HERE

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/ny...1&ref=nyregion

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company