ESSENTIALS
Firm Name: Koning Eizenberg Architecture
Principals: Julie Eizenberg, Hank Koning, Brian Lane, Nathan Bishop
Headquarters: Santa Monica, California
Accolades: Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Top 200 Residential Architects,” 2025; Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Best-in-State Residential Architects,” 2025
House Name: Shelter Island House
Location: Shelter Island, New York
Area & Layout: 2,500 square feet; 3 BR, 3 BA
Architectural Photographer: Michael Moran Photography (moranstudio.com)
Koning Eizenberg Architecture was started by a scrappy pair of young married architects laboring over their kitchen table at the dawn of the Reagan era. Nearly half a century later, the Santa Monica, California, firm is still at it, producing unpretentious contemporary homes that place a premium on community, sustainability and modesty.
All three qualities are on display in a weekend retreat the firm designed on Shelter Island, a bucolic haven wedged between Long Island’s North and South Forks, just up the road from The Hamptons. Given their proximity to that exclusive enclave, the clients’ wish list was surprisingly unassuming: They just wanted a small place with shaded decks, an outdoor shower, big fireplaces and good natural ventilation. “It made perfect sense, given the hot, humid summers and snowy, blustery winters,” says co-founder Julie Eizenberg, who started out designing the porch and let the rest of the design evolve from that.
“Porches are particularly effective at putting people at ease,” notes the architect, whose work tends to emphasize the power of informal spaces to bring people together. The Shelter Island porch stretches the entire width of the house, which nestles in a grove of trees about 250 feet from the shore. The porch provides shelter from the elements and frames views of the water and the ruins of an old masonry boathouse that dominate the vista.
The porch’s roof is supported by a procession of cedar beams that continue inside, uniting interior and exterior and establishing a rhythmic texture that is repeated in slatted walls, window screens and window vents. A blue tile wall anchors the rear of the galley kitchen, which is illuminated by a clerestory window above. Photovoltaic cells atop the roof help power the radiant-heated Douglas fir floors throughout the 2,500-square-foot home.
While the pavilionlike design pays homage to International Style, the simple, unpretentious finishes recall the beach houses of yore. In blending the two, Koning Eizenberg keeps the emphasis on the surroundings—but ensures that the view inside is pretty special, too.
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