Billy Joel is Moving Up — Literally

[caption id="attachment_48791" align="alignnone" width="800"] Renderings filed with the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review showing Billy Joel's residential compound as it would be reconfigured.[/caption]

By Douglas Feiden

The famous Billy Joel lyrics from his 1977 hit “Movin’ Out” offer a stinging rejection of the concept of “movin’ up” in the world. But when it comes to the late 18^th century home the pop singer owns on the Sag Harbor waterfront, moving up is exactly what he has in mind.

Mr. Joel’s builder and his architectural design consultant have been developing a plan that would literally hoist his home at 20 Bay Street off its foundation, construct a new foundation under it and then turn it around and realign it so that it more directly faces Marine Park and the Sag Harbor Yacht Club.

Angled askew of Rector Street, which itself approaches Bay Street in an angular direction, the two-story frame dwelling with its high stoop and porch doesn’t line up with a second newer building that rounds out Mr. Joel’s compound. By raising the original house and pivoting it, the two structures would abut to create an unbroken façade directly opposite the shoreline.

The issue of lifting, twisting and squaring off the 1,171-square foot main house — and combining it with the 1,960-square-foot commercial building next door that once housed a fish market and bait-and-tackle shop — surfaced on Thursday night as a discussion item at the meeting of the village Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review.

“What you have is an unhappy union of the two buildings,” said Bill Beeton, who has been retained to provide architectural design consulting services for the project. Reconfiguring the structures to “marry” the two forms would address the “owner’s interest,” he told the ARB.

[caption id="attachment_48790" align="alignright" width="454"] Renderings and drawings filed with Sag Harbor village showing Billy Joel's residential compound as it is currently situated.[/caption]

Some demolition —probably in the newer commercial building and in areas of the original that have been altered — would be needed if the project goes forward. But since formal plans and applications haven’t been filed yet, it is not clear what might be razed.

“Billy really wants me to keep as much of the old structure as I can,” said East Hampton-based home designer and builder Jeffrey Colle, who is the owner’s agent and once built a recording studio for Mr. Joel. “He loves Sag Harbor as I do, and that’s what Sag Harbor is all about.”

The 66-year-old songwriter’s classic "Movin' Out” is subtitled “Anthony's Song,” and a possible hurdle to his house-raising plans was posed at the meeting by ARB Chairman Anthony Brandt.

“I can fully understand anyone’s desire to marry the two buildings in a reasonable way,” he told the builders. But the issue isn’t only the structures, it is their “historic relationship to each other,” he added. “They are slightly askew. And that is one of those quirky things that we all love about Sag Harbor.”

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Brandt said the ARB would take a tour of the complex later this month to get a clearer look at both the structures and their positioning and configuration along Bay and Rector streets.

“Part of what we preserve is streetscapes, and this would change the streetscape by changing the relationship between the two buildings,” he said.

The 0.2-acre property is well known in Sag Harbor as one of the places where Mr. Joel, a six-time Grammy Award winner, keeps his motorcycles. Once festooned with dozens of multi-colored buoys on the Rysam Street side of the compound, it is also a short walk from the docks where he has often kept his boat, Alexa. The buoys were recently removed.

“Billy has respectfully chosen to decline comment for this story,” said spokeswoman Claire Mercuri.

The original five-bay frame residence boasts or boasted 12-over-12 light wooden sash windows, a brick foundation, shingle-wall cladding, an original kitchen in the basement and a steeply pitched side gabled roof, according to 1994 documentation from the National Register of Historic Places.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of those features survive since the home has undergone substantial remodeling. It was originally built between 1790 and 1800, the National Register says.

Tom Preiato, the village’s senior building inspector, said it’s early in the review process and he doesn’t have many details. But he added, “I met with the builder who has done countless historic renovations, and he expressed the desire to have the design be in keeping with the surrounding area and Sag Harbor in general.