ARB Considers Wooldon Manor Wall Application

There are seven new applications scheduled to be reviewed at the next public hearing of the , on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.

Applications Within an Historic District:

Vincent Camuto, 16 Gin Ln: repair and reinforce existing brick retaining wall surrounding part of the property. Andre Tcheilstcheff of New York City is the architect. Three neighbors were notified. This is the historic Wooldon Manor property and I think the plans to reinforce the wall could definitely be better. Basically, the architect has designed a new wall to be installed in front of, on the public side, of the existing wall, which will then have landscaping added, but will not match the paneling of the existing wall. I wonder why this proposed reinforcement layer can’t either be placed on the other side of the wall, or have a paneled design to coordinate with the original wall? By the way, Vince Camuto is a footwear designer, and the founder of Nine West. Google him.

Jason Fadeyi, 357 Great Plains Rd: change cladding and color on one side of house. Matthew Baird is the architect from NYC. Nine neighbors were notified. This is a modern house set back and not visible from the road. That said, the material change seems to me an improvement over the light green/yellow siding that exists. The new siding will be a western red cedar shiplap stained grey.  

Applications Outside an Historic District:

Melanie Giegel, 208 Herrick Rd: build 657-square-foot first- and second-story additions. Lisa Zaloga is the architect. Fifteen neighbors were notified. This house is on the south side of Herrick, just west of Lewis Street. There is a brand new 6-foot-high stockade fence along the front of the property which is strange ... I thought front yard fences could only be 4 feet high. The proposed design seems sympathetic with the neighborhood and with the existing architecture of the house, although I don’t love the shed dormers flanking each side of the new front gable. They are too prominent and compete with the hierarchy of the façade.

Joseph Stivaletti, 70 Pleasant Ln: one- and two-story additions and miscellaneous exterior alterations. David Hottenroth, of Hottenroth Joseph Architects in New York City, is the architect. Sixteen neighbors were notified. This little neighborhood is slowly being updated since it was developed in the '70s. The proposed design is an improvement over the existing, but needs improvement itself. I don’t like the paired windows without any space between them (4 to 6 inches). I don’t like the dormers; they are oversized with paired windows and their roof pitch is too shallow. And I especially don’t like the dormer over the entry.

Jay Schneiderman, 143 David Whites Ln: convert garage to living area; exterior alterations. This must be a rental property. Sixteen neighbors were notified. Chris Robbins of Shore to Shore Construction is the contractor. The house is on the northwest corner of Pulaski and David Whites. The design is simple and straight forward.

Eric & Dana Felder, 256 Wickapogue Rd: modify front entry and exterior gable ends. Jeffrey Gibbons is the architect. Nine neighbors were notified. The house doesn’t appear to be historic, and if it is you can’t tell anymore. The proposed work seems to improve the character of the house by eliminating some '90s embellishments and, except for the existing round top windows, making the house a bit more harmonious within its context.

Coopers Neck Family, LLC, 283 Coopers Neck Ln: build rear covered porch addition. This property really peeked my curiosity but I couldn’t discern a date for the house. It certainly looks old, doesn’t it? But I couldn’t find it on a map prior to 1954. Maybe it was moved to this location? It was originally just the two-story center portion with a small one-story section to the south. According to the White Pages, Averell Harriman Mortimer lives here. Talk about socially prominent families. His mother is the granddaughter of E. H. Harriman, the railroad tycoon. The Mortimers are one of the founding families of Tuxedo Park, and Averell is a descendant of John Jay, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. According to the Suffolk County clerk’s office, he got the property in 2004 from Montague H. Hackett Jr., a member of the , a trustee of the , a venture capitalist and natural resources big-wig.