[MassHistPres] Moving a 1795 Cape by barge

[Dennis De Witt]

Here is an example of moving by barge —  not quite so old (I did some of the original drawings)

Dennis De Witt
Brookline



 <http://www.nytimes.com/> 








March 14, 2009


To Save a Venturi House, It Is Moved 



                                                                                                                                             Rob Bennett for The New York Times

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 <http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=TAMMY%20LA%20GORCE&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=TAMMY%20LA%20GORCE&inline=nyt-per> and A. G. SULZBERGER



The house cruising up the river was well known to many in the crowd, but Samantha Aezen was one of the few who could call it home.


“I lived in the house for the summers in 1976 and 1977 — it was our summer house,” said Ms. Aezen, 42, of Manhattan. “I was watching CNN one night a while ago and I heard this was happening. I had to come down. I’m just so glad it’s being saved.”

The Lieb House, a beach cottage designed by one of the nation’s most prominent architects, Robert Venturi, that became widely studied as a model of modernism, was nearly torn down. Instead, on Friday, the house went on an unusual interstate journey, plodding
up the East River on a barge, destined for a new resting place in Glen Cove, on the North Shore of Long Island.


The spectacle attracted a throng of about 150 onlookers to the third floor of Pier 17 at South Street Seaport, including Mr. Venturi, the 83-year-old Pritzker Prize-winning architect who built the house in 1969 for Nathaniel and Judy Lieb. The Liebs had
it built near the northern tip of Long Beach Island on the Jersey Shore. The current owner of the property planned to demolish the structure, prompting the unusual rescue effort, which involved selling the house to an owner willing to relocate it.


Standing next to his wife and partner, the architect Denise Scott Brown, Mr. Venturi ignored the tangle of microphones and cameras thrust in his direction at the seaport, and applauded and waved with a weak smile as the 1,500-square-foot house and the barge
carrying it came into view, wending its way northward propelled by a tugboat and trailed by a helicopter.


The new owners of the structure, Deborah Sarnoff and her husband, Robert Gotkin, stood a few yards away from Mr. Venturi, pacing nervously as their new guest cottage sailed by. They live in another Venturi-designed home, and are paying the moving costs,
which are somewhere in the low six figures. The owners declined to reveal the cost of the house or the move.





Moving on a Barge to a Long Island Berth


    



                                                                                                                                   Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

The Lieb House, a beach cottage designed by the prominent architect Robert Venturi and revered by modernists, was perched at

Barnegat Light near the northern tip of Long Beach Island on the Jersey Shore since it was built for Nathaniel and Judy Lieb in

1969. On Friday, the house continued an unusual interstate journey, ploding up the EAst River on a barge, destined for a new

resting place in Glen Cove on the North Shore of Long Island.

 

 


                                                                                                                                  Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

The new owners, Deborah Sarnoff and her husband, Robert Gotkin, live in another Venturi-designed home, and are paying the

moving costs, which are somewhere in the low six figures. They declined to reveal the cost of the house or the move.





ects and friends hung over the pier rail to capture the moment with cameras, and watched through binoculars as the house and barge faded into the distance after passing beneath the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges.

“I had to come,” said Yoshi Tsukamoto, 43, a Tokyo-based architect, who learned about the move during a visit to New York. “Venturi is very famous. I’ve seen the Lieb House published in magazines. I’m so much influenced by him. This is once in a lifetime
— something very special.”

Michael Blasberg, a freelance architect with the Manhattan-based firm of Weiss/Manfredi, said he had been following Mr. Venturi’s work since college. “I used to make pilgrimages to see his buildings,” said Mr. Blasberg, 61. “I’d rent cars. So I saw this
house in New Jersey. I’m a little nostalgic about being here.” 


 

                                                                                                     Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

"This was a major monument in New Jersey architecture," said Fred B. Adelson, an art professor at Rowan University in Glassboro,

N.J. "New Jersey's loss is New York's gain. The important thing is that it's now getting the attention it deserves."

 

 


                                                                                                                                   Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

The roughly 1,500-square-foot, 30-foot-long structure passed by the familiar backdrop of Midtown Manhattan on its way up the

East River.


Fred B. Adelson, an art professor at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., who got up before dawn to make it to Pier 17 in time for the float-by, said he had been preparing to write an article about the 40th anniversary of the Lieb House when rumors started
circulating that it might be destroyed.

“This was a major monument in New Jersey architecture,” he said. “New Jersey’s loss is New York’s gain. The important thing is that it’s now getting the attention it deserves.”

The 20-hour journey ended shortly after noon, in front of a crowd of about 130 at the new site in Glen Cove. The owners opened their property to the public for the occasion, attracting a mixture of friends, neighbors and local politicians, who drank hot
chocolate and nibbled on cookies shaped like the giant “9” next to the front door.


The cottage was moved to a small plot about 50 feet from the main house. 

“It looks terrific, I’m a little speechless,” said John Halpern, who is working on a film about Mr. Venturi. “There no damage, not even a glass, not even a scratch. It looks like it’s been unwrapped from a box.”



                                                                                                                                   Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

The 20-hour journey ended shortly after noon, in front of a crowd of about 130 at the new site in Glen Cove. The owners opened

their property to the public for the occasion, attracting a mixture of friends, neighbors and local politicians.

 

 


                                                                                                         Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

The house was taken off the barge and moved to a small plot about 50 feet from the main house, where a foundation had been

laid in the winter-burned grass. For the next week or so, it will be propped up on pilings as plumbing and electricity are hooked up.

 

 


                                                                                                                                   Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

Deborah Sarnoff and Robert Gotkin, new owners of the home, have been waiting like expectant parents, both nerve-racked and

exhilarated.

 

 


                                                                      
                                    Photo: Rob Bennett for The New York Times

"It looks terrific, I'm a little speechless," said John Halpern, who is working on a film about Mr. Venturi. "There no damage, not

even a glass, not even a scratch. It looks like it's been unwrapped from a box."

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