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Architect’s rendering shows the facades of the house at 57 Howard Street with proposed expansions.
Architect’s rendering shows the facades of the house at 57 Howard Street with proposed expansions.
The Manhattan architect who presented initial plans for renovating and expanding the 19th century two-story, three-bedroom house in the Sag Harbor Historic District at 57 Howard Street to the Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board last week got a lesson in perspective and proportionality as the panel sent him back to the drawing board.
“Are you guys local?” Chairman Steven Williams asked Pietro Rosato, the Rome-born principal of PIRO Studio, based in Manhattan and New Jersey, and his associate Gabriel Landaverde, who both participated in the panel’s meeting in the Municipal Building on September 8 via Zoom, representing client Curtis Ravenel.
“Manhattan,” Rosato said.
Williams, who said the original house “is going to be overwhelmed” by the project, suggested they take a look at the John Jermain Library for an example of a historic Sag Harbor building with an addition that, at least from the Main Street side, does not challenge the scale or diminish the harmony of the 1910 original façade, even though he acknowledged the addition, completed in 2016, was controversial, and “you can see this skirted the line.”
Williams said the board is mandated to protect street-front facades under the rules for national historic districts handed down by the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The board’s historical architectural consultant, Zachary Studenroth, called the plan to enlarge a one-story “bump-out” on the left side of the house and build a large extension on the rear that more than doubles the original floor area “certainly a massive addition” to add one more bedroom.
“Just drive around” Sag Harbor, Studenroth told Rosato and Landaverde, to see many examples of historic houses in the district that have been “enlarged less massively” in recent years.
“We are preserving the front” of the original house, Landaverde said, but added that he understood there were issues with proposed “dormers” and “expansions.”
The proposal was listed as a “discussion item” on the board’s agenda, not a formal application for approval. When they return with a new plan and a formal application, Williams and Studenroth asked that they include front, side and rear elevations of the existing house and the proposed structure.
Also on September 8, the board tabled Thomas Stelle’s application to modify his planned expansion and pool next door at 59 Howard Street, which the panel approved earlier this summer after adjustments were made at the board’s suggestion by the architect, Fred Stelle. He said minor changes had become necessary because what the board approved differs slightly from the proposal that he has presented to the Harbor Committee for a wetlands permit. A decision was delayed only to obtain paint samples.
The panel tabled the application to expand the century-old house in the historic district at 181 Hampton Street with additions, a pool and new garage after Studenroth and board members raised objection to the layout of the garage, facing the street, attached to the house, which Studenroth called “suburban.” He said a Sag Harbor house from that era would not have had an attached garage but a freestanding outbuilding.
