After the East Hampton Town Planning Board showed enthusiasm at an October meeting for renewed plans for an extension and renovation of the Neighborhood House, now used by Project Most, the architectural review board also welcomed the new plans, which aim to save the historic structure.
At its Nov. 13 meeting, the A.R.B. was tasked with looking at the application so members could send comments to the planning board.
“This board enthusiastically endorses this application,” Chip Rae, the chairman, wrote in a Nov. 21 letter, fulfilling the A.R.B.’s obligation.
“Architecturally, it harkens back to the simple vernacular of cedar shake structures with traditional windows and modest white trim,” he said at the meeting. “It’s a quiet building. It does not scream, ‘Look at me.’ “
“The addition is contextual as it respects the existing architecture using the same vocabulary and materials,” he wrote in his letter. “The decision to increase the building’s mass to the right rear respectfully defers to the existing historic structure, which is what a thoughtful expansion should do.”
The house, at 92 Three Mile Harbor Road, has been a community center for 135 years, alternately used as a child care center, hospital, nursery, dance hall, and athletic center. An earlier version of the proposed renovation called for the structure to be razed and replaced with a mansion donated by a Further Lane resident.
“I personally never felt quite good with that because it felt like we were putting a square peg into a round hole,” Val Florio, the project’s architect, told the board. (Mr. Florio was also the chief spokesman for the project in front of the planning board.) “I think people, with good reason, were pushing back. And this has been a good revisit and just a new reset.”
Even though the building would increase in size by 50 percent, to 6,516 square feet, board members appreciated the way the expansion would not be visible from Three Mile Harbor Road.
“You’ve masked it from the street,” Frank Guittard, a board member, said at the meeting. He had a bigger problem with one of the older renovations, a vestibule that connected a large hall to the original cottage. “I wish there was a way to improve it or rectify that architecturally.”
Mr. Florio, noting that there were no historic protections on the Neighborhood House, said it was a possibility. “I can revisit that front elevation and put doors and maybe even inset the entry to give it that look of a covered porch that says, ‘Hey, I’m historic, too,’ “ he said.
“It’s probably a very useful thing to have a vestibule like that,” said Chris Britton, the board’s vice chairman, “but it’s just not working.”
Tina Vavilis LaGarenne, the town’s planning director, said in an email last week that Project Most will respond to initial comments made by the planning board and those from the A.R.B. and resubmit the application in the near future.
