Ike Kligerman Barkley Houses

Some houses are places to sleep. Ike Kligerman Barkley houses are places to live
large. Think wide porches that beg for rocking chairs, shingle-clad curves
that catch the ocean light just right, and interiors where a soaring, timbered
ceiling feels as natural as a pair of worn-in leather boots. These homes are not
minimalist white boxes; they’re richly layered, deeply considered, and unapologetically
comfortable. If you’ve ever seen a shingle-style beach house that somehow feels both
timeless and completely of-the-moment, there’s a good chance Ike Kligerman Barkley
(often shortened to IKB) had a hand in it.

For decades, the firm has carved out a rare niche in American residential
architecture: creating houses that honor classical tradition while embracing modern
lifestyles, materials, and technology. From windswept New England bluffs to
sun-warmed California hillsides, Ike Kligerman Barkley houses show how thoughtful
design can turn a site, a climate, and a client’s quirks into one cohesive,
character-rich home.

Who Were Ike Kligerman Barkley?

Before their partners amicably launched separate firms in 2022, the trio behind
Ike Kligerman Barkley – John Ike, Thomas A. Kligerman, and Joel Barkley – ran a
bi-coastal practice with offices in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.
They built a reputation as “modern traditionalists”: architects who spoke fluent
classicism but weren’t afraid to bend the rules when a site or a client called for
something unexpected. Their work frequently appeared in
Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Elle Decor, and
other design bibles, and they landed on the AD100 list of top designers
year after year.

Awards followed: AIA New York Chapter honors, the Decoration & Design Building’s
Stars of Design, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s Julia Morgan and
Stanford White Awards, and more. Two substantial monographs –
Ike Kligerman Barkley: Houses and The New Shingled House – turned
their projects into case studies in how to make traditional architecture feel
surprising, fun, and completely suited to contemporary life.

Yet despite all the pedigree, there’s nothing stiff about Ike Kligerman Barkley
houses. They’re the rare kind of high-end architecture where a muddy dog and a
sandy barefoot kid don’t feel out of place. That mix of elegance and ease is the
firm’s secret weapon.

The Signature Look: Shingle Style, Reimagined

If you had to choose one image to represent Ike Kligerman Barkley houses, it would
be a shingle-style home hugging a dramatic coastline. Wood shingles – often cedar,
aged to a silvery gray – wrap roof and walls in a continuous skin. Gables swoop,
dormers pop, porches tuck in and out, and curves soften what might otherwise be a
straightforward box. This is classic American seaside architecture, but dialed up
with inventive forms and luxurious details.

Their book The New Shingled House showcases 14 such homes scattered from
Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons to Northern and Southern California. The common
thread isn’t a rigid style guide; it’s a way of thinking. Shingles become a kind
of couture fabric the architects drape over asymmetrical volumes, towers, and
sweeping rooflines. The result is casual on the outside, refined on the inside,
and always absolutely tuned to the surrounding landscape.

“Upside-Down” Beach Houses

One of the firm’s most talked-about ideas is the “upside-down house.” In several
coastal projects, including New England and Massachusetts beach houses, the main
living spaces occupy the upper floor, while bedrooms and more private rooms nestle
below. Why? Because the view is better higher up, of course.

Instead of reserving the best vistas for a single primary suite, Ike Kligerman
Barkley flip the script. The great room, kitchen, and dining area – the spaces
where family actually spends time together – get the full panorama of ocean,
sky, and horizon. Downstairs, bedrooms stay cool and sheltered, each with its own
more intimate connection to the landscape through patios, gardens, and terraces.
It’s a perfect example of how these architects shake loose from convention so the
house actually matches the way people live.

“Shinglish,” Lodges, and Longhouses

While they’re strongly associated with shingle style, Ike Kligerman Barkley don’t
stop there. One early house, nicknamed the “Shinglish Country House,” playfully
mixed English cottage elements with classic American shingles. A Blue Ridge
mountains lodge pushes in the opposite direction – robust stone, dramatic curves,
and tower-like roof forms that match the muscular terrain rather than trying to
tame it.

In Hawaii, the firm reimagined the traditional Polynesian longhouse as a breezy,
modern, wood-and-shingle retreat. In Mexico, a beach house splits into two
personalities: one side reads as a picturesque village of gabled roofs facing the
street; the other is a sleek, curved villa cascading toward the sea. Across these
projects, the DNA is the same. Ike Kligerman Barkley houses borrow from local
vernacular architecture, then remix it until it feels both deeply rooted and
intriguingly new.

What Makes an Ike Kligerman Barkley House Feel Special?

Beyond the shingles and photogenic rooflines, a few design principles show up
again and again in Ike Kligerman Barkley houses. These values make their work a
masterclass for anyone dreaming of a forever home – or simply collecting ideas on
Pinterest at 1 a.m.

1. Site Comes First

Whether a project sits on a cliff, a rolling meadow, a tight city lot, or a
suburban cul-de-sac, the starting point is always the land. The firm is known for
creating houses that feel inevitable, as if the landscape grew the building on
purpose. Rooflines echo mountain ridges, window groupings frame particular trees
or distant church steeples, and porches and terraces fold around prevailing
breezes and sunset angles.

In beachfront settings, this might mean elevating main living areas for views and
storm safety. In rural Virginia, it might mean letting the house sprawl in a
series of wings that echo historic farm complexes while still feeling crisp and
contemporary. The big idea: a house should look and feel like it couldn’t exist
anywhere else.

2. Tradition with a Twinkle

Ike Kligerman Barkley houses are informed by classical rules – symmetry, rhythm,
proportion – but they’re not enslaved by them. A façade might read as perfectly
composed from a distance, only to reveal a playful off-center entry or an
unexpected curve up close. Inside, a formal stair hall might open onto a relaxed
open-plan kitchen and family room, complete with breakfast banquette and oversized
island.

This willingness to bend the rules is what keeps their work from feeling like a
museum piece. You get all the satisfying order of traditional architecture, plus
the flexibility and flow that modern families need. It’s “classic with a wink,”
and that wink is what makes these houses feel so alive.

3. Interiors That Support Real Life

While the firm is best known for its architecture, their houses often come with
interiors that are just as carefully considered. Large mudrooms, walk-in pantries,
cozy window seats, bunk rooms for grandkids, and flexible spaces that can morph
from home office to guest room all show up in the firm’s residential work.

Materials are chosen as much for durability as for beauty: honed stone that hides
crumbs, timber beams that can take a few dings, metals that develop a lovely
patina instead of looking “ruined.” Lighting plans emphasize warm layers – ambient,
task, and accent – so that a soaring shingle-style living room feels intimate at
night instead of cavernous. The goal is not just a pretty photograph, but a house
that works on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon as well as it does on a summer holiday.

Coastal, Country, and City: Where Ike Kligerman Barkley Houses Shine

Because they’ve worked all over the United States and beyond, Ike Kligerman Barkley
houses offer a kind of informal catalog of how different settings shape design
decisions. Three broad “genres” show up over and over.

Coastal Retreats

On the coast, the firm leans heavily into shingle style and its cousins. Expect
wraparound porches, sleeping porches, and screened rooms that blur the boundary
between inside and out. Main-level decks often extend directly off the living
room, creating what feels like one enormous space when the weather’s good. Roof
overhangs and pergolas provide shade, while carefully placed windows scoop up sea
breezes.

Interiors in these coastal houses tend toward airy: pale woods, painted paneling,
stone that echoes the local geology, and built-in nooks that invite spontaneous
naps. These are the Ike Kligerman Barkley houses most likely to inspire a “Can we
just move here forever?” group text.

Country Compounds and Mountain Lodges

In the countryside and mountains, the firm often embraces a more muscular
vocabulary: stone bases, generous chimneys, and forms that step along hillsides
instead of bulldozing them flat. Great rooms might center on a massive fireplace,
with timber trusses overhead and walls of glass framing distant ridgelines or
rolling fields.

These houses are designed for year-round living in places where seasons matter.
Mudrooms grow larger, porch spaces become all-weather, and outdoor firepits,
terraces, and screened pavilions extend the usable calendar. The architecture nods
to Adirondack camps, English country houses, or rustic national park lodges –
filtered through Ike Kligerman Barkley’s refined, tailored sensibility.

Townhouses and Urban Residences

Even in denser settings, the same core values apply: respect for local character,
a strong sense of proportion, and a focus on liveability. An urban Ike Kligerman
Barkley house might preserve a historic façade while completely reworking the
floor plan behind it – inserting a glass stair, carving out a courtyard, or
opening up a double-height kitchen and family room where a warren of small rooms
used to be.

For homeowners who love traditional architectural details but want open-plan
living, this combination is gold. You might get crown moldings, paneling, and
classic casings paired with steel-framed interior windows and sleek cabinetry.
It’s not either/or; it’s both/and.

Design Lessons You Can Steal for Your Own Home

You may not be hiring an AD100 firm anytime soon, but there are plenty of design
moves from Ike Kligerman Barkley houses you can adapt at almost any scale:

• Wrap materials around forms. Using the same siding or cladding on walls and roof can visually unify complex shapes.
• Honor the landscape. Let your site dictate where windows, porches, and main rooms belong instead of forcing a generic plan onto the land.
• Mix formal and informal. Pair a well-proportioned front elevation with relaxed, open interiors that fit everyday life.
• Create one “wow” space. A double-height living room, dramatic stair, or perfectly framed view can give even a modest house a sense of occasion.
• Design for real messes. Mudrooms, durable finishes, and smart storage make a beautiful house truly livable.

The magic of Ike Kligerman Barkley houses isn’t just the craftsmanship or the
price tag. It’s that they feel deeply personal and surprisingly relaxed, even when
they’re large and luxurious. That’s a lesson worth borrowing, no matter what kind
of home you live in.

Experiences and Impressions: What It’s Like to Live in an Ike Kligerman Barkley House

Architectural photos tell one story; actually living in a house tells another.
While every Ike Kligerman Barkley home is unique, certain experiences tend to show
up again and again when homeowners talk about their daily life in these spaces.

Morning starts on the stairs. In many IKB houses, the stair is not just a way to
get from A to B; it’s a central architectural event. Sunlight slips down from a
skylight, grazing the curve of a handrail, catching a painting at the landing, and
finally pooling in the entry below. Kids thump down with backpacks, someone
balances a coffee mug and laptop, and the space that looked formal in the real
estate photos suddenly feels like a busy, beloved artery of the home.

In an “upside-down” beach house, the experience flips the usual script. Instead
of shuffling straight from bed to kitchen on the main level, you head upstairs to
the great room. The reward for those extra steps? A full sweep of ocean, sky, and
changing weather. On clear days, the horizon line looks razor-sharp; on foggy
mornings, the world blurs into soft grays. Over time, that daily encounter with
the landscape quietly rewires how you mark time. Seasons aren’t just dates on a
calendar; they’re the way the light hits the water at 7 a.m.

Afternoons tend to drift outside almost without effort. Because Ike Kligerman
Barkley houses usually stitch together porches, decks, terraces, and lawns, you
don’t have to “plan” outdoor time. Someone throws open a set of French doors,
another person wanders out with a book, a neighbor drops by with a dog, and
suddenly the entire social center of the house has migrated to a covered porch or
stone terrace. The architecture has been quietly encouraging this all along – with
generous overhangs for shade, outdoor fireplaces for chilly evenings, and a sense
of enclosure that feels safe without feeling fenced in.

Even mundane tasks get upgraded. A once-boring mudroom becomes command central,
with built-in cubbies, benches, and hooks that keep chaos in check. Groceries move
efficiently from car to kitchen thanks to logical circulation and ample pantry
space. Laundry rooms often have windows (imagine that!) so folding clothes doesn’t
feel like being sentenced to a closet. These are small things, but strung together
they create a daily rhythm that’s calmer and more enjoyable than many people are
used to.

Entertaining, of course, is where Ike Kligerman Barkley houses really flex. A long
weekend with extended family might mean a dozen people cycling through the
kitchen, kids piling into a bunk room, grandparents claiming a quiet sitting room,
and teenagers staking out territory on a covered balcony. Because the firm designs
with varied zones – loud and quiet, sunny and shaded, open and intimate – the
house absorbs all that activity without ever feeling chaotic. One group can watch
a game in a media room while another plays cards in a library and a third lingers
over wine at the kitchen island, all within easy reach but never on top of each
other.

Over years, the house develops its own patina of memories. Shingles weather,
stone softens around the edges, wood floors pick up tiny dents and scratches. None
of this feels like deterioration; in fact, Ike Kligerman Barkley houses are
designed to welcome it. The architects tend to choose materials that age
gracefully, so the home looks better at year 15 than it did on move-in day. This
long view – designing for decades, not just for the final punch list – may be the
firm’s most quietly radical move.

Living in an Ike Kligerman Barkley house doesn’t require you to be an architect or
design buff. You don’t have to know the name of every molding profile or precedent
behind that tower-like stair. What you notice instead is how the house seems to
anticipate you: the way a hallway widens just where two people always pass, the
way a window seat ends up being exactly where everyone wants to sit, the way the
kitchen feels comfortable whether you’re cooking for two or twenty. That sense of
being understood – of your daily life being quietly supported by the walls around
you – is what turns a beautifully designed house into a true home.