Famed Developer Harry Joe Brown, Jr. Dies

His last project was the famous Hamptons 'Houses at Sagaponac' development.

1 minute read

December 4, 2005, 11:00 AM PST

By Brenda Meyer


"In the mid-1990's, Mr. Brown acquired 56 acres of scrub land in the hamlet of Sagaponack for $1.6 million when another developer went bankrupt. It was supposedly on the wrong side of the Hamptons' main road, too far from the beach and too close to East Hampton Airport.

Mr. Brown, widely known by his nickname "Coco," persuaded the architect Richard Meier to recruit a roster of top architects. Mr. Brown's idea was that people with a certain blend of wealth, knowledge and pretension would line up for modernist houses designed by the likes of Mr. Meier, Philip Johnson, Michael Graves and Sir Richard Rogers."

Monday, November 28, 2005 in The New York Times

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