For anyone who watched Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette when it arrived on Disney+ in New Zealand earlier this year, Kelly Klein will have re-entered the cultural conversation as a significant figure within the rarefied New York fashion world that surrounded Carolyn Bessette in the 1990s. The former wife of Calvin Klein, portrayed in the series by Leila George, has spent much of her life closely connected to fashion, photography, art, and design, an education in proportion and restraint that perhaps finds its clearest expression in the home she created with David Piscuskas and Ed Parker of 1100 Architect. Across 800 square metres, the residence is composed as two perpendicular volumes informed by the pared-back geometry of agricultural buildings, with one wing containing the principal living spaces and the other accommodating the bedrooms, creating an expansive plan whose scale remains tightly controlled.
The plan gives the house much of its character, particularly where the two wings meet and form a sheltered forecourt that directs attention through the building towards Sag Harbor Bay. Within the main volume, kitchen, dining and living areas unfold across an open, loft-like space beneath double-height ceilings, while a 40-foot wall of glass brings the changing light and movement of the water into constant view. A screened south-facing porch and a 125-foot terrace extend the living areas along the waterfront, giving the substantial house an ease that comes from the clarity of its organisation rather than decorative gesture.
That discipline continues through the construction, where window frames disappear into the walls, gutters remain concealed and three-inch timber cladding travels from the roof down the exterior surfaces without interruption. The effect depends on precision, since architecture stripped of conventional trim or ornament leaves every junction, proportion and material transition exposed to scrutiny. The bedroom wing remains on the same level as the principal rooms, while storage, laundry and a three-car garage occupy a lower level that recedes from view.
Klein spent two summers living in the property’s original 1950s beach cottage before construction began, giving her time to understand the site before committing to the scale and orientation of the new residence. The architects retained and renovated that cottage, painting it black so that its smaller mid-century form sits in deliberate contrast with the pale contemporary house behind it, while an infinity-edged swimming pool between the two buildings reads as another horizontal plane beside the bay.
Inside, whites, creams and restrained neutrals provide a quiet framework for furniture and art spanning several decades. Hans Wegner chairs surround a Boffi dining table, 1930s Jindřich Halabala armchairs sit in the great room alongside an Isamu Noguchi Akari lantern, and the media room brings together pieces by Pierre Yovanovitch, B&B Italia, George Nakashima and Serge Mouille. Rather than allowing those names to dominate, the interior gives each piece sufficient space within the larger architectural composition, while the expansive glazing ensures the water, sky and seasonal colour beyond remain the house’s most persistent presence.
