If the sound of wrecking balls and demolition don’t bring you bliss, you’re probably siding with Southampton officials on the future of a Norman Jaffe-designed home.
Orest Bliss, who has owned the home at 88 Meadow Lane for more than four decades, is looking to sell the largely obscured property, Newsday reported. As part of the plan to sell, Bliss is seeking the ability to tear down the home, which could pave the way for an oceanfront mansion in the Hamptons.
An issue arose over the house’s status as the first in Southampton Village designed by famed architect Jaffe. Village officials largely opposed the “radical” design when it was built, but the village’s administration is rallying around saving the property for its architectural legacy today.
Bliss filed a lawsuit last year against the village’s architectural review board after it denied a request that would’ve allowed for demolition of the home. In its rejection, the board said Jaffe’s work was “of particular local importance to the Village of Southampton and to the Historic District.”
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Bliss’ legal team disagrees. In court documents, Bliss argued the home isn’t architecturally significant and wasn’t listed as contributing to the historic district. The owner’s legal team also cited a renovation of the home in 2000 and the recent demolition of two other nearby Jaffe-designed homes.
Multiple architectural critics have come out in support of saving the “Bliss House,” but the issue will ultimately be decided in the courts. The next battleground is the Suffolk County State Supreme Court, where the case will return at the end of the month.
While demolition is on the table for one Jaffe home in the Hamptons, another is on the auction block. The East Hampton property at 100 Further Lane is being auctioned by Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions. The 6,000-square-foot home belonged to the late economist Joel Stern.
— Holden Walter-Warner