Design Spotlight: Elevated Elegance

“This project completely changed how we spent the summer. We are out there all day long. We eat almost all meals outside: Breakfast, lunch and dinner. We read out there. We will sit out late at night with the screens down and enjoy the 360-degree sounds of the night. What we’ve accomplished is an outdoor area that is every bit as outdoors as it ever was, but it is so much more comfortable. We find that family and friends just want to hang out in this space and my wife and I do as well. We live out there.”

It took a rained out, 80-guest, dockside concert to motivate these clients to add strategic shelter to their elevated deck overlooking Lake Minnetonka’s exclusive Smithtown Bay. The retired hospital system CEO wanted protection from rain, wind, sun and bugs without diminishing the space’s outdoor feel or compromising the lake view and natural light inside the home. It had to blend architecturally and look like it had been designed with the house 20 years ago. It also needed to support an outdoor kitchen fit for a most serious master chef. This NARI member collaborated with the architect who designed the original home to get the details just right.

For two decades the homeowners made do with an open deck and a grill. Evening meals often were accompanied by blinding sun, unexpected showers or bloodthirsty bugs. Today, it’s different.

• A smartphone-controlled Struxture pergola opens and closes for versatile shelter. The space can be enjoyed rain or shine throughout an extended lake-shore season.
• 100% weatherproof cabinet by Nature Kast.
• Motorized Phantom Screen walls and a side-loaded divider feature performance-engineered screening that filters harsh sun, reduces wind and blocks the tiniest insects from the dining area.
• The masterchef suitable outdoor kitchen features a Memphis grill, warming drawer, griddle, high BTU burner, 2-drawer fridge and weatherproof NatureKast cabinetry.

• The homeowner believes the new deck structure enhances the home’s lakeside elevation. It blends with the home’s original architecture through the matching white columns, railings, cedar decking and copper details.
• Decorative internal chain in the dining area turns ordinary rain into an entertaining water feature that can be seen, not just heard.
• The custom, copper-topped pergola frame mirrors the home’s existing flashing to meld the new with the old. Copper detailing enhances the view from above.
• Thin, stainless steel cable railing preserves the priceless lake view.

• Copper flashing atop the pergola frame and around the railing posts were shaped and installed on-site.
• Tasteful, custom columns and beams around the structural steel core conceal mechanical components, drains and roll-screens.
• Site-cut pergola louvers mirror the deck’s trapezoidal footprint.

• The pergola gutter system is fitted with interior rain chain rather than an internal downspout to reduce the outside corner column profile.
• The building inspector required a formidable steel I-beam pergola frame to withstand on-shore gusts. The steel structure necessitated significant work-arounds to drains, louvers, screen motors and retractable screens in architecturally sound columns.

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