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If Tory Burch is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, she certainly isn't showing it. The designer and social fixture is now petitioning Southampton's Architectural Review Board for permission to demolish the Meadow Lane home that she purchased for $22.5 million earlier this year.

Burch may have good reason for wanting to see the home razed to the ground. Property records indicate she bought the home in February 2009 from her ex-husband, Chris Burch. Presumably Tory (and boyfriend Lyor Cohen) didn't need the constant reminder of her previous life.

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That said, it's quite a house. (It's also quite a neighborhood: Ian Schrager, David Koch, Teddy Forstmann and Henry Kravis all have houses on the same street.) Designed by architect Norman Jaffe and custom-built by David Webb [see update below], the six-bedroom home situated on 4.5 acres has views of the ocean and bay, comes with 200 feet of ocean frontage, and the requisite gunite pool, spa, and sunken tennis court. Did we mention the helicopter landing pad? Oh, yes, there's one of those, too, as you can see.

The Burches and a friend of Chris's named Todd Morley picked up up 2080 Meadow Lane for $14 million in 2005 from theater tycoon Jimmy Nederlander Sr. Tory and Chris's marriage unraveled shortly thereafter, though, and they put the home up for sale later that year for $25 million. The property never managed to find a buyer, but it did land itself a big-name renter: Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky bunked down there during the summer of 2007.

Now Burch plans to tear it all down and build it all up again. What she's planning do do exactly isn't listed in Southampton public records. But it should be nice, provided it passes muster with local officials. The architect attached to the project is Daniel Romualdez, the same man responsible for designing Tory's sprawling, over-the-top penthouse at the Pierre.

Update: Sally Spanburgh says that the home was not, in fact, designed by Jaffe. These details had been mentioned here and here in 2007, which explains why we got it wrong.

Update: A representative for Burch tells us that a number of other details about the property and the original 2005 purchase are incorrect. As noted above, this information was contained in a New York Post article in 2007. We're looking into the disparity and will post an update as soon as we get to the bottom of things. In the meantime, Burch's rep explains that the house is being torn down due to water damage it sustained in the last couple of years.