Orono Overlook

Shorewood, MN

Completed 2023

These clients built this new home on Lake Minnetonka and hoped for a relaxing space for their family and friends. Loving the minimalist and Zen style, they wanted to use timeless and quality materials and have the design speak to the group. It was important that the whole space felt open and airy, yet it also allowed for unique spaces that felt connected.

A hot tub was a necessity for this client, and finding the right spot was a challenge! The designer transformed this corner space into a vaulted hot tub with multi-level sitting areas. A storage bench on the left and stadium seating on the right expand the hot tub space and allow for comfortable group entertainment.

This bluff lot had major restrictions on how close we could build up to the lakeshore setback as well as how much hardcover we could add. We had to get creative to make these entertaining spaces within hardcover limits and a buildable area.

The outline of the sunken entertaining space is the exact boundary of the lake shore setback, so we used every possible inch.

Since decks do not count as hardcover in this municipality, the curved deck is on top of a drainage swale and stormwater drainage area that drains into the lake.

The lower lawn area was graded so that all water runs to the drainage system under the deck instead of visibly pooling in the yard. A creative variation on the standard rain garden!

TA-DA!

Behind the Design

Design Notes

Before

A new build on Lake Minnetonka with a minimalist, Zen-leaning family — and a bluff lot wrapped in lake setbacks and hardcover limits that seemed to forbid everything they wanted.

The Idea

Make the restrictions design the space. Retaining walls push exactly to the lakeshore-setback line to carve a sunken walkout room off the basement — cozy, purposeful, and open to the water. In a leftover corner, a vaulted hot tub rises with stadium seating on one side and a storage bench on the other.

After

Black pavers, ipe wood, and Fond du Lac stone answer the house’s stone and siding; big steppers float in synthetic turf under the deck; a bed swing hangs in the corner under ambient light. Open and airy, but every space feels connected — and the lake view runs straight through the front door.

The Brief

—Minimalist, Zen style in timeless materials
—Work inside strict setbacks and hardcover limits
—Open and airy, with distinct connected spaces
—Feature the lake view — and find room for a hot tub

Materials & Craft

Black paver patio
Ipe wood
Fond du Lac stone walls
Synthetic turf with paver steppers
Vaulted hot tub surround

The sunken room

Retaining walls extended to the setback line create a sunken space right off the basement doors — a dark corridor transformed into a destination, without blocking the view above it.

The vaulted hot tub

A tight corner became a raised hot tub with multi-level seating — storage bench left, stadium seating right — built for group entertaining.

Steppers in turf

Large pavers laid into synthetic turf soften the underdeck area — hard materials, soft read.

An entrance worth the walk

Seat walls and small tiers enclose the architect’s exterior fireplace by the front path, staging the through-the-house lake view as visitors arrive.

The hard part

The clients wanted a walkout basement with a lake view on a grade that didn’t allow one — retaining walls at exactly the permitted heights, minimal grading inside the lakeshore setback, and steps built atop a concrete wall made it real.