Dan’s Papers April 29, 2011 danshamptons.com Page 13
For You? Frank Lloyd Wright House May Move to Sagaponack By Dan Rattiner Around the United States today, there are about 34 towns and cities that have in them homes built by Frank Lloyd Wright. They are tourist destinations. People come from around the world to see the Pew House in Madison, Wisconsin, or the Robie Prairie-style house in Chicago or Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. They are examples of the work of a man who was a great genius of the 20th century, the founder of Modern Architecture and probably the greatest American architect who ever lived. The homes are also breathtakingly beautiful. In a strange twist, a home built in a flood zone in New Jersey is now being proposed to be moved, panel by panel, to an historic but little
architects but also preservationists and stewards. But then, in 1999, there came Hurricane Floyd, which flooded it again. And they fixed it again. But they came to the inescapable conclusion that if the house was to survive in the long term, it would have to be moved. “New Jersey has its own agenda when it comes to development,� Tarantino said bitterly, “and protecting historic properties is not its priority.� Last year, the Tarantinos saw an article in The New York Times that they felt was an answer to their prayers. It described the attempted revival by two builders of a failed 140-acre housing development in the woods of Sagaponack. There, 32 plots of land had been set aside for homes to be built by 32 celebrated modern architects. The names of these willing architects are on small signs on the entry driveways to their plots. But only eight houses got built before the developer of the place, Harry “Coco� Brown Jr. passed away in 2005. Homes there that are occupied today are by Philip Johnson, Stan Allen, Keenen Riley, Sam Mockbee, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl,
“When I read about this development in the Times,� Tarantino said, “I knew this could be the perfect home for our house.�
Dan Rattiner’s second memoir, IN THE HAMPTONS TOO: Further Encounters with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires and Celebrities, is now available in hardcover wherever books are sold. The first memoir, IN THE HAMPTONS, published by Random House, is now available in paperback.
known residential development in the woods north of the Montauk Highway in Sagaponack. The announcement of the proposal came in a dramatic speech made on March 17 at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show at the Javits Center in Manhattan. The speaker, Lawrence Tarantino, an architect of note himself, who along with his wife, Sharon, also an architect, lives and works in Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House in Millstone, New Jersey. Twenty-four years ago, early in their careers, they learned that the house was in serious disrepair as a result of the flooding caused by Hurricane Doria in 1971. They bought the house, and with their own money lovingly restored it, becoming now not only
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