Lake House on a Wooded Shoreline · Minnesota
An invented house, drawn and rendered to show how a finished project is presented. Not built.
A family lake house of about 3,400 square feet, turned southwest to the late sun.
The house is a single bar, 82 feet long and 26 feet deep, set across a wooded slope where the ground falls toward the lake. Its long side faces southwest. Every room that matters takes that side: the great room, the kitchen, the primary suite. The road side is the opposite. It is mostly cedar wall, a few narrow windows and one recessed door, so the lake is held back until you are inside.
The lake is held back until you are inside.
A charcoal standing-seam hip roof keeps the line low and pulls the eaves out deep over the glass. Under the roof, the slope does the rest of the work. On the road side the house is one storey at grade. On the lake side the ground drops away and a lower walk-out opens beneath the deck, so a two-level house reads from the drive as a long, quiet single storey.
The site is red pine, birch and maple on ground that falls about thirty feet to the water. The house sits low on that slope, below the tree line, with its glass turned to the southwest so the strongest light of a summer evening comes in level across the floor. The deep eaves cut the high midday sun and let the low sun under.
The cladding is vertical cedar, unstained and left to weather. It starts warm and goes silver over a few seasons, unevenly at first: the faces that take the most sun and rain turn first, and the boards under the deep eaves hold their colour longest. The roof and the black window frames stay fixed. Over time the walls come closer to the bark of the pines around them.
In the order a visitor tours the house: road, door, great room, hearth, kitchen, suite, deck, walk-out, dock.
A gravel drive comes in from the northeast through the pines and widens into a small entry court. The door is set into a cedar-lined recess, a step of stone at its foot. It is a single oak pivot door beside a full-height sidelight, and when it swings open the lake is already there, straight through the house and out the far glass. One step in, the plan has made its whole argument.
The great room runs along the lake wall under a vaulted white-oak ceiling. Black-framed glass fills the bays between oak mullions, floor to eave, and the cedar deck continues the floor outside at the same level. Living and dining share one long room. At its far end a wall of basalt holds the fire, and the room settles around it.
The hearth is the one heavy thing in a light house. Stacked basalt rises to the peak of the ceiling, and a long stone ledge runs beneath a linear firebox: a seat in winter, a shelf for wood the rest of the year. The same stone carries down through the lower walk-out and up through the roof as the chimney, so the mass you lean against in the great room is the mass you see from the water.
The kitchen sits under the same vault, between the great room and the hearth. Full-height white-oak cabinetry lines the back wall flush, so storage reads as wall. The island is topped in soapstone, dark and matte, the surface that takes a knife and a hot pan and gets better with use. The sink faces the other way from everything else in the room: a single window over it looks into the birches on the road side, and the island looks to the lake.
The primary suite holds the northwest end of the bar, reached along a gallery glazed to the lake. It is the one room where the glass turns the corner: lake on one side, woods on the other, the bed set back from both. The suite is 20 by 15 feet under the oak vault, with its bath and closet on the road side.
A cedar deck ten feet deep runs the full width of the great room, level with the floor inside, so the room simply continues out under the sky. Beside the hearth, a screened porch shares the chimney’s stone and takes the evenings when the mosquitoes come up off the water. Steps lead down from the deck’s end to the lawn.
The lower level is set into the slope under the great room, its back against retained earth and its front open to the lawn. Two bedrooms, a bath and a rec and media room share it. The rec room opens through sliders onto a stone terrace sheltered by the deck above: a covered place at the water’s level for wet towels, a game, a rainy afternoon.
From the terrace a stone path goes down across the lawn to a timber dock. Seen back from the water at dusk, the house becomes what it was drawn to be: a lit band of rooms under one dark roof, with the basalt chimney marking the hearth and the walk-out glowing at the water’s level.
Three sheets: the site, the main floor and the lower walk-out. Open any sheet to read it whole.
The house sits mid-slope between the 16- and 24-foot contours, below the pines and behind the shoreland setback. The gravel drive enters from the township road at the northeast corner, bends down through the trees and ends at the entry court on the road side. The arrow marks the late-afternoon sun from the southwest, square to the long glass face. The stone path runs from the walk-out lawn to the dock.
One bar, 82 by 26 feet. Entry, stair, pantry and baths line the road side; great room, kitchen, dining and primary suite line the lake side. The primary suite is at the northwest end beyond the gallery; the screened porch and the fourth bedroom are at the southeast end beyond the hearth. The cedar deck is drawn ten feet deep across the great room, with steps down to the lawn.
58 by 22 feet, set under the great room with retained earth behind it. Bedroom 2, the rec and media room and bedroom 3 face the lake; bath 3, the stair and mechanical storage sit against the hill. The basalt base stands directly under the hearth above. The stone terrace sits beneath the deck, and the path leaves it for the dock.
Concept drawings, November 2026. Not for construction. Site figures are illustrative.
Every house starts with a slope, a direction and a view worth holding back. Bring us yours.
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