Nature Is The Muse For A House On Lake Michigan

Years after falling in love with a home designed by architect Celeste Robbins, a Chicago-area homeowner and her husband tapped the professional to configure a modern dwelling for their family.

“Our weekly team meetings were exciting, as it was fun to work through challenges and make creative design decisions based on our collective vision,” she says of the process, which also included builder Jake Goldberg, interior designer Travis Clifton and landscape architecture firm Barker-Evans.

The residence — located on a steep ravine that offers views of Lake Michigan in the winter and a leafy respite in the summer — is a modernist jewel designed by Robbins to not only take advantage of its setting but to accommodate the family’s growing collection of contemporary art.

“You can’t separate the architecture from the materials here; it’s one cohesive element,” says Robbins, noting the suspended Corion desk that floats before a window in the study, erasing any sense of boundary with the natural world.

“It’s such a gorgeous site,” adds Robbins. “The architecture is all about connection with the outdoor spaces and how everything ties in together. The landscape was really the inspiration.”