Given his career-long expertise in lake camp design, principal Larry Pearson had an exceptionally high bar for his own. Of supreme importance: a modest exterior with a green footprint that skipped visually over the shoreline to appear to touch the water. For a casual feel welcoming friends and family, Larry saw durable natural materials and furnishings—legacy interiors that could laugh off dripping lake water, rowdy kids, and the occasional fumbled plate of bar-b-que chicken.
Originally toying with a full-on contemporary statement, Larry quickly veered into a blend of modern-contemporary concepts—eco-sensitive, light, and comfortable. Because the property rested on the lake’s hundred-year floodplain among cattails and protected wetlands, design was also colored by the need for construction techniques that left the vegetation minimally disturbed. Later, many of the materials would be transported by zipline to leave the landscape untouched.
Eclectic architecture, distinctive art, hand-crafted ceramics, and the melding of a simple structure with a restful lakeshore setting inspired one friend to dub the main house “a shipwreck:” striking, ageless, and one with the water. The home’s open floorplan, walls of glass, and varied driftwood-hued materials set the stage for relaxed furnishings rich in texture and comfort, whether vintage and new. Every element has been hand-picked for beauty and utility; there is nothing lacking, nothing superfluous.
A smaller, separate cabin built on piers serves as Larry’s studio and, as he imagined, brushes the water. Stretching the living space outside, the cabin’s covered porch offers a place for transitioning to nature or lingering over morning coffee, then broadens into open-air decking along the way to the dock.
It is a house built to sit with nature, to hold strong against storms and ice, to host birthday parties and Superbowl Sundays. Or to pause within quietly, gratefully: listening to the lake.
