THE LAKEHOUSE
The Lakehouse project measures 23’ long, 10’ wide. The model recreates an estate set on the Northern shore of Lake Tahoe, California. The theme of this piece is construction, as is evident in the partial framing of some buildings, the rebar and concrete work that is about to happen at one of the driveways, or the main house with its roof under construction.
Michael’s vision with this piece was to capture the activity and processes that go into the building of a custom home. When viewing this piece you are seeing the job site on perhaps a Sunday afternoon, when there is no construction activity.
As well as the main house, this estate has a detached 2 car garage with a workshope, a 5 hole pitch and putt golf course, a covered outdoor basketball court, boat dock and ramp, glass house, outdoor swimming pool, turtle pond, 2 treehouses, outdoor hot tub and spacious redwood decks and lots of winding paths all enclosed by a 8’ property line wall.
Try to imagine the next day however when contractors and tradesmen return to continue work, and the job site is full of activity and energy.
IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS
IN MICHAEL’S OWN WORDS
The origins of the Lakehouse date back to 1999. I don’t recall having a specific “aha” moment but during that winter I started to design and build my own custom dream house. The real question however was whether or not I should drop the 2-3 million on an existing property, demo it and build my dream house, or instead build a scale model of what I had in mind? I decided to go with option B.
The original plan was to design and build an isolated house. the Lakehouse estate angle wasn’t conceived until three years later, when in 2002 I had a remodel project for a client in Truckee, just a few miles from Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe is without a doubt one of the finest examples of nature at its very best. Mark Twain once described the lake as the “fairest picture the whole Earth affords”.
I Iived and worked here for about a month and just fell in love with Lake Tahoe, and knew that from that point onwards my model project was going to be set on the shores of Lake Tahoe, specifically a place called Carnelian Bay, close to the Nevada border.
Others with less literary flare such adjectives like, majestic or breathtaking when describing this very deep and perfectly blue lake. I recall being energized and excited after this Tahoe experience, and driving home to Santa Barbara my mind was overflowing with ideas on how I would transform my model into a lakeshore property.