Heart of the Hamptons Plan Gets Cool Reception at ARB; Shippy's Plan Unveiled

Heart of the Hamptons was back before the Southampton Village Board of Architectural Review & Historic Preservation on Monday, September 12, to seek approval of its planned changes to the former village ambulance barn on Meeting House Lane, which the nonprofit has leased from the village to become its new food pantry.

After receiving the Village Board’s OK to operate a food pantry there and Planning Board approval of its site plan, Heart of the Hamptons still needs the Board of Architectural Review & Historic Preservation, commonly called the ARB, to sign off before it makes changes to the site or the exterior of the building. However, ARB members had a number of objections Monday and indicated it would not be approved as currently proposed.

ARB Chairman Jeffrey Brodlieb pointed out that his board last heard the application in July 2021, when several concerns were raised about the architecture.

The architect for Heart of the Hamptons, Ben Chaleff of Chaleff & Rogers Architects in Water Mill, said the plan has not changed significantly since the ARB saw it last. He explained that the building was originally purpose-built as an ambulance barn and the plan calls for changes to make it better suit the needs of Heart of the Hamptons while making it “a bit of a better looking building on the outside.”

Chaleff said the existing brick will remain as is, except where window and door openings will be modified, and the brick will be matched as best they can. The existing trim is wood in various states of repair, the existing wood windows are generally in poor repair, and the plans call for new windows and doors in white aluminum finish, he said.

The one addition to the building that’s planned is entirely within a second-floor dormer, Chaleff said. It would be clad in Boral poly-ash clapboard siding, and white to match the proposed Boral trim. The roofing would be replaced with gray pewter asphalt shingles. One ambulance garage door would be replaced with a white aluminum garage door, and the second door would be filled in with brick, leaving only enough of an opening for awning windows.

Brodlieb raised a question about the proposed white enclosure around a dumpster. Chaleff said the dumpster is sited where the Planning Board approved it, though Brodlieb pointed out that the Planning Board approval hinges on receiving ARB approval.

Brodlieb called the dumpster in front of the building “an appendage that I think is disharmonious to the neighborhood.” He suggested that Heart of the Hamptons store its refuse inside the building instead of a freestanding structure. “You don’t see dumpsters out on Madison Avenue,” he said.

ARB member John Gregory said the dormer should be moved to the west side of the building so it doesn’t create a privacy issue for the neighbor, and fellow member Mark McIntire echoed that idea.

The proposal calls for the dormer to be added to the east side of the building, facing a residential property. Chaleff explained that in the proposed location it is conforming to the zoning code, but if it was moved to the other side it would require a sky plane variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

McIntire also questioned the location of an outdoor walk-in freezer and whether it would be a noise hazard for the neighbor, though Chaleff said the freezer’s compressor — which makes the noise — would be located in the attic of the building.

Rose Stewart, the neighbor to the east, also spoke during the ARB public hearing, expressing her family’s privacy concerns over the dormer location.

An attorney for a group of Meeting House Lane property owners — JoAnn Hale, Helene Fagan and Jim McFarlane — who oppose Heart of the Hamptons operating on the street, brought in Stephen Jones, a planning consultant.

“The existing building, we know, is not going to win any architecture awards anytime soon,” Jones told the ARB. “So you have an opportunity to take a municipal building and make it look a lot nicer than it is.”

He said a west-facing dormer would improve the look of the building from the street, and also said the freezer should go inside the building, or at least be moved to the south side of the building.

Kimberly Allan, a former village trustee and the daughter of McFarlane, who too is a former village trustee, spoke of the historic nature of Meeting House Lane.

“Officially, this isn’t in the Southampton Village historic district, this structure, but it’s in spitting distance of it,” Allan said. “… What’s really concerning to me is every single document that this village has produced for the last 20 years, including the original master plan, the new master plan, the architectural design guidelines, all talk about the gem of Meeting House Lane. … It’s very scary to me that we somehow don’t take an opportunity to place a nod to the historic character of this village, which is what we’re known about worldwide.”

Molly Bishop, the executive director of Heart of the Hamptons, defended the proposal.

“We are keeping the building almost identical to what it looks like right now, but bringing it up to something that can accommodate people all year round,” Bishop said. “Right now, it is really just a garage that has been left in total disrepair.”

She also noted that the village owns the building, but Heart of the Hamptons is investing the money to improve it.

The hearing was kept open so Chaleff could come back with a modified plan.

The ARB did not look favorably on the plans that real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens offered to convert the former Southampton post office at 39 Nugent Street into a modern real estate office.

Kenneth Lunstead, the studio director of design firm Gensler, said the existing building has “no architectural merit whatsoever.”

The proposed changes include a mostly glass facade, with white brick on the edges and top. The west side would be unchanged, and the east side would have a wide area of glass, much like the proposed front entrance.

He said that across the street and on Main Street, there is a lot of precedent for plate glass windows.

“We thought that this current scheme was a little more fitting and would be a good addition to Nugent Street,” Lunstead said.

Board members did not agree.

“First of all, I think that the design is completely, completely unacceptable for the Village of Southampton,” Gregory told Lunstead. “It’s too contemporary of a design. There’s too much glass. The materials are wrong. The buildings you reference across the street at least have some design elements … embedded into the brick.”

He went on to say real estate offices have abused the signage laws by putting up images of houses in their windows. “I know exactly how this will end up looking from the street,” he said. “It’s too much in contrast with the rest of the village. … Not in a million years would I ever approve this.”

McIntire called the massing of the glass “foreboding” and suggested softening the entrance and better defining the entryway.

Brodlieb said it would be a disservice to approve this proposal when it could be in contrast to the master plan update that the Village Board is in the final stages of approving.

Board member Sarah Latham had the gentlest words for Lunstead’s plan: “I’m delighted that you have something that’s a product of its time,” she said. “It’s not necessary to have something that’s ersatz.”

John Betts, the new owner of Shippy’s, the 68-year-old restaurant at 36 Windmill Lane, presented plans to give the building’s facade a face-lift while retaining its character.

“We’re very interested in preserving the historic nature of this, but we want to build for the next 100 years,” Betts said.

Guiding plans for Shippy’s are “the experts and our guests and employees,” he said, adding that more than 1,000 guests have been surveyed or joined feedback sessions.

Architect Lisa Zaloga said the building dates back to the 1930s and was originally an A&P grocery store.

She explained that the building’s original windows have all been replaced over the years. The plan includes going back to having nine-over-nine windows — windows with nine panes in each sash — as the building had in the 1950s.

Paint on the lower half of the front of the building would be removed to expose the brick underneath. The lower portion of the large sign over the entrance would be removed to reveal windows that were covered up at some point.

Zaloga said the windows are amazing and gorgeous, with many little squares, a design seen on Jobs Lane and throughout the village at places like La Parmigiana.

To give Shippy’s more of a pub feel, the plan includes adding narrow mullion divisions to the plate glass windows in the front of the building, she said, and along the side of the building, on the first floor, their goal is to add seven French casement-style windows. Plus, they’ve spoken with the Southampton Rose Society about having roses grow up and around the windows, she added.

“This is a little ‘l’ landmark right now, and that doesn’t mean to say that in the future it won’t become a big ‘L’ landmark,” Latham said.

She said the research that’s been done on Shippy’s history is commendable and something that’s usually done for a formal landmark.

McIntire called the plan “masterful.”

The application was adjourned.