ESSENTIALS
Firm Name: Desai Chia Architecture
Principals: Katherine Chia, Arjun Desai
Headquarters: New York, NY
Accolades: Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Top 200 Residential Architects,” 2025; Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Best-in-State Residential Architects,” 2025
House Name: Osprey House
Location: Shelter Island, New York
Site Specifics: Just under an acre of waterfront property bordering a nature preserve
Area & Layout: 3,400 square feet, 4 BR, 4 BA
Architectural Photographer: Paul Warchol (warcholphotography.com), Jake Balston (jakebalston.com)
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s it a house or is it an observatory? The distinctions tend to blur when you’re talking about homes designed by Desai Chia Architecture. Blessed with walls of glass and broad, outstretched roofs, they offer sanctuary from the elements while wrapping their residents in nature. That’s certainly true of this residence in Shelter Island, New York. Dubbed Osprey House for its avian neighbors—and the way it mimics their elevated perches—the structure’s veiled exterior offers a ringside view of the adjoining shoreline and the wildlife that inhabits it.
FRED ALBERT, Forbes Deputy Editor, Architecture: In terms of scale, scope and identity, how does this project fit into your overall body of residential work?
KATHERINE CHIA: We love connecting our clients to the landscape and shaping experiences that bring people together. For this project, our client wanted to build a home for his family on Shelter Island that would foster their love for beach walks, kayaking and living within nature. The site is located at the edge of a coastal nature preserve. As we walked around the property, we became captivated by the ecology of the nearby wetlands and the native osprey birds. As quirky as this may sound, that was the jumping off point for the design of the home. Also, we always think carefully about the power of light. Light articulates form, animates texture, connects indoor and outdoor, and has the potential to create drama where it might not be expected. Because this site primarily faces north, we integrated a long, south-facing clerestory window at the offset ridgeline of the roof, so that sunlight would wash across the exposed structural beams throughout the day and bounce warm light into the living spaces.
ALBERT: Creatively, from a design problem-solving viewpoint, what are a few of the most satisfying solutions that came together here?
CHIA: Osprey nests appear in treetops, telephone poles and nautical piers throughout the island. So we designed this home with large communal living spaces and an outdoor terrace perched on the second floor in the spirit of an osprey nest. This offers the raised gathering spaces a stunningly expansive view of the marshland’s thriving ecosystem; the clients can observe the movement and migration of wildlife across the layers of forest, wetlands and tidal coves. The vertical cypress siding—inspired by the vertical slats of ‘bird blind’ structures that populate the nature preserve—allows the home to blend into the trees and encourages wildlife to occupy the lot. The home’s nautical forms project toward the water like a ship’s bow, providing covered outdoor gathering spaces on both the first and second floors.
ALBERT: What’s next for the studio?
CHIA: In addition to several new residences in Michigan, Colorado, upstate New York and Costa Rica, we are working with museums and a university on projects that foster community and collaboration. Expanding our work into cultural and institutional projects has been very exciting and has led to compelling client conversations that explore the reciprocity of ideas between residential design and other building typologies. Museum clients want to create a welcoming sense of “home” for a more engaging art and visitor experience. University clients are seeking spaces that act like inviting “‘living rooms” to build community and strengthen relationships between students and faculty. These tenets are at the core of our residential architecture work, so it’s been a natural fit to apply them more broadly.
