When Mrs. Jackson Burke decided to build a house, she wrote her architect a letter expressing in general terms her conception of what a house should be. She was emphatic in her preference for contemporary design. "I choose to live in a modern house," she wrote, "because I want to live in the present. I want to take advan- tage of new techniques and ways through which one can express beauty and attain comfort." But she had qualifications. Her house, said Mrs. Burke, must not possess "an impersonal, antiseptic, institutional quality." The result of Mrs. Burke's views and her architect's interpretation is the house shown here. Built on Center Island overlooking New York's Long Island Sound, it embodies both the beauty and the comfort its owner sought. It is large, open and spacious, three stories high at the back, with a guest wing which is almost a separate unit.
In the house, privacy may be easily found. The living room, for instance, is two stories high, with a wall of glass panels on one side and a great upper window on the other. But at one end of the room is a fireplace cove which provides a snug contrast to the openness. Although the house was designed to accommodate a busy social life, it also includes an "escape" area the master bedroom-sitting room suite, which is the only living space on the third floor. Two large sun decks and promenade decks running around most of the main floor offer many beautiful vistas.
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source: House and Garden Magazine | February 1956
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