Lake Simcoe Retreat – Main House

This 5 acre property just an hour away from the city was envisioned as a family retreat for our clients.  The potential was amazing, but the existing structures posed unique challenges for the Architects.  There was an early 20th century Gatehouse, a solid masonry Main House and large steel frame Boathouse at the water’s edge.  To win the project we started with design renderings of our vision for the Boathouse, reducing it’s size and transforming it into a modern summer guesthouse with more transparency, blending into the shoreline and enhancing the view from the Main House.  The Owners were won over by that concept, and they set us to work on renovating the Main House first as their priority for starting to use the property as soon as possible.

The final realization of the Boathouse came later as the project evolved over several years.  The House was solidly built and had some interesting features so demolishing and creating unnecessary waste was out of the question.  The Octagon Room – the hub of family gathering – is large enough to accommodate multiple functions however was ill suited to a Kitchen off to one side.  The renovation increased the connection to the outdoors by transforming one of the spokes of the Octagon into a dedicated kitchen space with three sides of windows facing the new pool, terrace and lake.  The other two spokes became quiet reading room and kids playroom respectively.  The Primary Suite and Office are on the main level with children and guest suites on the 2nd.  Custom millwork, natural materials and integrated lighting were important goals for the Owners and feature both prominently and subtly throughout.  The pattern on the office walls is an abstraction of the owner’s name in morse code.