This open plan uses columns, soffits, and ceiling height to define activity areas. Materials include maple floors, maple and mahogany cabinets, acrylic stucco, granite, and limestone. This home was featured in Midwest Home and Garden magazine and was awarded a first place ASID award for Pisa Design who collaborated with us on the interior design. This project is an addition and extensive remodel of a home built in 1905. The portico, entry, and octagonal room at the front along with the porch seen in the rear left are new construction. The revised floor plan provided better circulation and a greatly improved view of the lake. Work included new fireplaces and new chimneys, all new fenestration, siding, and a concealed deck off the master bedroom that is built into the porch roof. This home was designed for an extremely challenging lot on one of the highest points in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The plan accommodates over twenty vertical feet of slope within the width of the house and preserves the woodland canopy. The entry is reached by an arbor covered bridge and views as far away as St. Paul are visible through the glass curtain walls in the living room, and master bedroom, and from their cantilevered decks. The gallery features a forty foot long skylight at the roof ridge which leads to the door of the master suite which is built into the chimneys. The door of the master suite is built into a chimney. This is a modern interpretation of the Prairie Style. The redwood siding of the main floor rests on a base of wire cut brick. The cruciform plan allows views to the lake from almost every room in the house. The ivory colored stucco soffits reflect sunlight from the water deep into the living area and provide cover for the large cantilevered deck. Built on Lake Minnetonka, this home was designed to recall design elements of lake homes from the past. Great attention was paid to the massing of the façade and the layering of textures. Upper level decks are concealed within main floor roof lines. When this home was sold to new owners in 1990, we were asked to design another addition and further remodel our original design. This new work consisted of adding two new bedrooms and baths, a new library, remodeled kitchen, and an extensive terraced deck with pergolas and arbor covered benches. Photograph by Karen Melvin This home was designed to take advantage of a very private, large lot on a small lake. Large decks surround and connect each room on the lake side. Careful attention during the initial site planning allowed us to save virtually every tree to shading a serpentine driveway that preserves privacy and perfectly presents the first views of the house to arriving guests. Exterior walls are covered in stucco and cedar shingles. The interior is very open with spaces within the continuous ceiling vault defined by floating soffits. This design is a modern interpretation of the bungalow style. The site presented a challenge as it was surrounded by a U-shaped street on three sides resulting in a situation where the best views were to the lake while the or but the best light was toward the street. By incorporating the large wraparound deck with solid walls and then cutting away the walls and inserting copper rails at specific angles, it was possible to provide screening from the street and preserve the views to the lake. The large copper clad eyebrow dormer brings light into the living space through a barrel vault. We designed a series of cottages that are being built along the Brickyard Creek in the forest along the Lake Superior shore just north of Bayfield, Wisconsin. Careful site planning and "Green" construction techniques to minimize the impact to this pristine site preserve private woodland views of the forest from the open floor plan of each cabin. These cottages are constructed from native timber and include metal roofs, cedar shingle siding, and large screen porches. We are also designing Lake Homes on the coastal shores of Lake Superior on both the Wisconsin mainland and Madeline Island. This design was prepared as part of a compound that included a main house and a boathouse. The main floor features an open plan with a vaulted ceiling of exposed timbers, two bedrooms, and a deck. The upper level is a loft overlooking the main floor. The exterior was designed with native stone and white cedar shingles. This new home in Minnetonka combines several textures and colors in a contemporary interpretation of the bungalow style. The exterior blends roman brick with two earthy tones of stucco and stained cedar shingles. These textures are counterpointed by windows framed with wide, bay-leaf colored trim. A multi-member steel colonnade rests on a stone capped brick base that holds the cedar arbor projecting from the brick wall to form an entry proscenium. The interior combines a very open plan with vaulted ceilings, roman brick, granite, and Brazilian cherry floors.