Ike Kligerman Barkley Houses

John Ike, Thomas Kligerman, and Joel Barkley speak architectural languages of the past with a sure command of grammar and syntax and a rich vocabulary of form and detail. As designers they build upon what went before to extend the trajectory of architecture. —Robert A. M. Stern The signature residential works of Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects bring together historic precedent and contemporary taste with a considered approach to detail, material, and craft. Based in New York and San Francisco, the firm incorporates elements from the great eras and the great practitioners of architecture: the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Deco, Modernism, Colonial Revival, Shingle Style; Sir Edwin Lutyens, Harrie T. Lindeberg, George Howe, Bernard Maybeck, and McKim, Mead & White. Yet ever present is a keen awareness of the modern world, notably in an emphasis on natural light and open views and a responsiveness to the unique qualities of a site. The twenty-one houses and apartments in this lavishly illustrated volume, the first published on Ike Kligerman Barkley, represent the remarkable breadth of the practice. A cottage in Michigan reveals a comprehensive investigation of craft traditions, while a Hawaiian beach retreat explores the vernacular Polynesian long-house. A sleek Manhattan loft evokes the industrial history of its neighborhood, while an oceanfront villa recalls Carlo Scarpa’s interweaving of past and present. Unusual, even unlikely combinations—an English-influenced Shingle Style house the firm terms “Shinglish,” a Virginia horse farm that draws equally on classical formality and easy rusticity—embody the firm’s sophisticated balance between historic model and modern refinement. Just as novelists and filmmakers gravitate toward genres that suit the themes they choose to explore, we look for the historic style that represents the best vehicle for the architectural story we wish to tell. —Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects