Michigan Lake House

The clients for the project love their location overlooking a beautiful lake in central Michigan, however, the existing house was not spacious nor as inspired as its beautiful location.  NFA usually advocates for saving as much of the existing home as possible, and in this case, the design preserves the existing foundation walls and walkout basement.  Therefore the new construction is largely confined to the footprint of the existing home.

The new home is more expansive and allows for more sweeping views of the lake.  The floor plan expands to allow key social spaces to be separated such as kitchen and dining (separated from) the central living areas on the upper level.  The walkout basement has a lower ceiling, but the goal was to broaden the space below the house and make it much more connected to the landscape (despite the sharp drop-off in the topography toward the lake).  A series of low-slope steps are utilized to gradually transition from the lake dock to the downstairs area where much of the socializing happens in the warmer months.