• Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Scarcliffe Cottage

    Built on granite-clad, terraced foundations on the northern edge of Lake Muskoka in Ontario, Canada, this modern cottage is a dynamic, volumetric response to its site as it quietly settles into its natural landscape. From the water’s edge, it gives a linear impression as its deep rooflines provide horizontality to the series of forms as they cascade down the steeply…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Serene retreat

    When it came to this Arts and Crafts-inspired home set on the rolling terrain of Cantigny Golf Club’s 300-acre property in Wheaton, Illinois, the clients looked to bring Joan Kaufman, FASID, LEED AP, founder and president of Interior Planning and Design Inc. of Naperville, Illinois, on board with their existing design and build team. Recognizing its potential for their dream…

  • Featured,  Form

    Building delight

    The team at Giraffe Design Build LLC believe that a finely designed and expertly crafted home encourages inspired living and generates delight for both people and the environment. Their goal is simply to bring joy to people’s lives. The Ann Arbor, Michigan–based company affirms the principles of effective design, careful craftsmanship, open communication, and responsible stewardship of their clients’ homes,…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    Building better lives

    “Our mission statement is to build better lives for our clients and our employees. I think the construction industry as a whole is uniquely positioned and I think our segment of the market is different in that we don’t build speculatively, we don’t go buy land and make you build with us, we are very much custom and clients choose…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    Building Someday

    Built high into the steep, dune bluffs in Leelanau County, this contemporary lakefront home transcends traditional vernacular as it stands witness to the drama of a dynamic Lake Michigan theater. Magnetic and mercurial, the lake is one of expressive hue, shifting sands, and powerful currents set amid ancient forests, towering headlands, and islands of tilted limestone layers buried beneath glacial…

  • Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    The Caterpillar

    In Core City, Detroit, urbanism is defined in unconventional terms. For the creative and technical minds behind the neighborhood development at the intersection of Grand River Ave. and Warren Ave., it is about investing in intentional and thoughtful ideas grounded in reality to create a place rather than a market or projects motivated by demand. It is about renovating and…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    The Georgian coastal

    Built high into the white sand, wind-blown bluff on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, this coastal Neo-Georgian retreat is an inspired dialect of classic vernacular language often found in Georgian—and its American iterative, Colonial Revival—and Atlantic, Nantucket style. Defined by its proportion, symmetry, and restrained classical ornamentation, this residence reinterprets the traditional with East Coast inspired shingle siding, large…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Choreographed by design

    From within the renovated walls of a landmark-designated site in the Traverse City State Hospital Historic District, a husband-and-wife-led team of kitchen designers, project managers, interior designers, and craftspeople are continuing a mission established long before relocating their design studio to the former Steward Residence on South Division in Traverse City, Michigan. Initially founded in 2003 as a cabinet supplier…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    Enriched space

    Communities are defined by a set of unspoken social and cultural norms, strengthened by shared beliefs and often united by similar factors such as inclusion, safety, education, engagement, and sustainability. While each is unique, there is a common potential and ability for fostering healthy, supportive environments for the people who make up that community. In Toronto, Ontario, ZAS Architects +…