Midwest Sanctuary

Nature is folded into front and back courtyards to capture the outdoor beauty from all angles and elicit an immediate sense of belonging. Escaping the winters, the owners return each year to the brief but magical joy of a Midwest summer. This house expresses a high level of craftsmanship and detail through a language of metal, glass, and stone, each eliciting an underlying richness. The facade celebrates the nature of the stone with an intervention of hand-chiseled slots. Soaring glass windows, designed specifically for this house, create a delicate separation between inside and out, embracing and welcoming nature. This dialogue informed the design at all scales, from the profile of the mullions to the structure that enables the columns to sit just beyond the plane of the glass.