Kate Foster, Architect, Painter, Tennis Player

Kate (Sullivan) Foster, a residential architect and designer with a lively curiosity that ranged from classical art to Eastern philosophy, died on Jan. 18 at Northern Westchester Hospital from complications of breast cancer treatment.

Ms. Foster, 62, who was professionally active in Westchester County for nearly 30 years, delighted architecture clients with solutions that maximized living space and displayed a deep understanding of how people move in their homes.

Born Mary Kathleen Sullivan in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ms. Foster was the youngest of six children of William and Florence Sullivan. After high school in Cincinnati, she attended Rosemont College near Philadelphia and the University of Cincinnati School of Design, where she earned a degree in interior design. During a 1977 internship with the international architecture firm of HOK in New York, Ms. Foster decided to stay in New York and become an architect.

It was that year that she met and married food-industry entrepreneur Alain Foster. The couple lived in a loft in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood while Ms. Foster obtained her architecture degree at Pratt Institute and launched her professional career.

In 1983, while expecting the first of their two daughters, the couple moved to Bedford, renovating an antique farmhouse on Route 22 near Fox Lane. Ms. Foster worked with partners in White Plains and Bronxville and then founded her own firm, Kate Foster Architect, working from home as she raised her young daughters. She had a love of such classical forms as Greek columns and porticos but also embraced tenets of feng shui, the ancient Chinese system of determining the most auspicious site for a building.

The Fosters spent three years in Belgium in the early 1990s, where Ms. Foster indulged her love of painting and participated in international service organizations. Throughout her life, she continued painting, traveling and entertaining her legions of friends. She also was a spirited tennis player and member of the Pound Ridge Tennis Club. In 2010, the Fosters moved from Bedford to Pawling.

Besides her husband, Alain, and daughters, Celine and Julia, Ms. Foster is survived by a brother, William Sullivan, four sisters, Nancy Beck, Carolyn Braham, Emily Dietz and Ruth Tart, and several nieces and nephews.