Recently the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, the Brutalist masterpiece of modern architecture designed by Marcel Breuer on Madison Avenue on the southeast corner of 75th Street, indicated it may abandon its home for new digs designed by Renzo Piano at the foot of the High Line Park in Chelsea.

This week, an article by W. M. Akers at the observer.com indicated that the Parish Museum at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton is contemplating a move from its lavish grounds and handsome 19th Century building at the epicenter of the world-famous resort village for a larger facility on a 14-acre plot on Montauk Highway in nearby Water Mill, N.Y., designed by Herzog & Meuron, the architects of the fabulous "bird-cage" stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

"By attempting to become what Parish director Terrie Sultan called an 'art museum of all the Hamptons,' the museum will leave its hometown village in the dust,'" the article said. The move is certain to significantly lower property values in tony Southampton as it is its only important tourist attraction over than its nice beaches and large houses hidden behind tall hedge rows.

"'I think it's absolutely the worst thing that ever happened to the village,'" said Mayor Epley. He invoked tradition, pointing to the mayoral portraits that hang on the disco-era wood-paneled walls of his office, an array which includes Samuel J. Parrish. Mayor Parrish' collection of Renaissance and Classical miscellany was the original foundation for the museum. '"They're walking away from 100 years of history, and it absolutely blows my mind."' More importantly, the museum has held exhibitions on William Merritt Chase, the foremost American Impressionist of his day who held classes in Shinnecock and his paintings of Southampton landscapes are extremely highly prized.

The article noted that the Parrish decision to relocate out of Southampton "may be a cautionary tale" as "a nationwide museum-expansion boom has left several institutions bigger than their britches and loaded with debt."

"After a flirtation with reopening on the grounds of Southampton College, the board settled on the Water Mill site, a 14-acre plot on the heavily congested Montauk Highway. Their original plan for the new building, drafted in 2006, was scrapped when the recession seriously stalled fund-raising, and made its $80 million price tag look unrealistic. Thus, the hiring of Ms. Sultan. Then the much simpler $25 million barn. (Faulted by some architecture critics as too unambitious.) When he learned they were scaling back, Mayor Epley made a last attempt to heal old wounds. Armed with a revised master plan, which envisioned a sanctified arts district as the spine of the village, he offered to expand the museum's footprint so that they could have their loading dock and use it, too....To stay in the old space, Ms. Sultan said, was "just not possible. It's a beautiful gem of a building, but it can't function as a 21st-century museum."

Although changing designs caused a two-year delay, the last of the paperwork has been filed, and the final building permit was granted May 10. No official date for groundbreaking, but the sign is up and Ms. Sultan said their fund-raising is in order -they've raised about 70 percent of the total $25 million need...."Groundbreaking is imminent. We're just waiting to pull the trigger."

Ms. Sultan dismissed concerns that their audience will not follow them to the new site. "We're only four miles away! You can walk there ... if you're in really good shape."

Southampton Village's problem now is what to do with the building once the Parrish is gone, leaving nothing but a $1 million leaky roof and Mr. Parrish's original collection of Roman busts and classical paintings.

Mayor Epley wants to keep it artistic, using the historic site to house live theater, or the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Terrie Sultan was formerly Director of the Blaffer Gallery at the Art Museum of the University of Houston since 2000, and was the organizing curator of Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration.

Mrs. Sultan became director of Parrish in April 2008. She received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Syracuse University ad a master's degree in museum studies at John F. Kennedy University and has vacationed with her brother, Donald Sultan of Sag Harbor, for more than 15 years.