Edwina von Gal’s Marshouse Hits The Market

The home of renowned landscape designer Edwina von Gal overlooking Accabonac Harbor in Springs has hit the market, seeking $11.5 million.

Named “Marshouse,” and pronounced “marsh house,” von Gal’s home abuts the Kaplan Meadows Sanctuary and is landscaped with various native plants.

The property showcases the principles of Von Gal’s nonprofit Perfect Earth Project, which promotes toxin-free lawns and landscapes. She calls it a “chemical-free ecological sanctuary.”

Hamilton Smith, a partner of influential modernist architect Marcel Breuer, designed the two-bedroom, two-bath house with an open living room, dining room, kitchen and study floor plan. He built it in 1974 for himself. It’s one story, sitting on stilts, with cypress interiors and exteriors, and large windows — and its construction would never be approved today in its sensitive location.

Included in the $11.5 million price tag is a small cottage, on a separate parcel, that currently serves as the Perfect Earth Project office.

Von Gal is the third owner the property, which she purchased in 2003. She said her plan is to return to Upstate New York, where she is from, and added that she will also keep a presence on the East End. As for the Perfect Earth Project, she said it will be going national while maintaining its East End roots.

Jenny Landey and Zacheriah Dayton of Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.

“What really sets it apart from anything and everything else I’ve seen out here is its relationship to where it sits in nature and the awe-inspiring breadth of the panoramic vistas as seen from this house,” Landey said last week.

Because the home predates zoning, it could never be replicated today, she pointed out.

“You arrive at the house and you get up on the deck and you look around and you see nothing in any direction other than nature: marshland, water, the osprey,” she said.

The cottage includes an addition by minimalist architect Joe D’Urso, a member of the high-tech movement.

The cottage parcel, marked by von Gal’s gardens, has the potential for a substantial home to be built there, Landey pointed out.

“You could do that while still enjoying the incredible beauty of the current home,” she said. “So you don’t have to forgo anything should your lifestyle dictate more needs than the house itself has to offer. So it really is a compound opportunity.”

Combined, the parcels are 4.6 acres.