Waterfront – Mountain Architects: Hendricks Architecture Idaho

Priest Lake Cabin

January 26, 2018 by John Hendricks, Architect AIA 2 Comments

A lakefront beach cabin we designed was recently completed on the shores of Priest Lake, in Northern Idaho. Beautiful lake views abound from just about every room.

The owners wanted to replace an outdated cabin that was set far off the beach. The placement and design layout of the home didn’t work for them, and wasn’t very energy efficient, so they decided to start from scratch. The Owner’s “cabin on the lake” wishlist included a rustic, yet refined look on the exterior, with cedar, stone and timbers. A connection to the outdoors, with lake views from all the major rooms, along with outdoor living spaces, was a must.

Beachfront cabin at Priest Lake

The new cabin includes four bedrooms and a large game and sleeping loft. The beach level lower floor comprises of a boat garage with plenty of room for other water toy storage, as well as a family room and two bedrooms. Down below there is also a mud room and outdoor shower on the side.

A Priest Lake cabin dining room with a view

The main entry level has an intimate dining and kitchen, along with a master suite that includes a large tub and walk-in shower, and beautiful views across the lake. A soaring living room, with recessed bookcases and overhead timber trusses (two flanking a two-story fireplace), shares space with the upper loft.

Soaring living room with fireplace and timber trusses

A soaring living room and loft space connect to the more intimate kitchen and dining rooms.

The living room and dining room both have access to a large deck, held up by timber posts and knee braces, wrapping around to the front of the cabin. The lake views out of these rooms are breathtaking. There’s also a one-car garage on the main level.

An intimate dining room and a soaring living room space both have incredible views of the lake.

The cabin was designed in the Mountain Architectural style, which incorporates natural elements. The siding is beveled cedar, with stone accents. It is post and beam construction, versus a true timber frame. The windows are aluminum clad, with alder wood interiors.

Part of the southern end of Priest Lake, as see from East Shore Road.

Priest Lake is in the northern panhandle of Idaho, in what is called “Lake Country”. Though it’s only the 3^rd largest lake, behind Lake Pend Oreille and Lake Coeur d’Alene, it’s still 26,000 acres, or about 41 square miles. All three of the lakes produce some of the biggest trout in the country, along with kokanee, bass and many others. Priest Lake is the more rugged of the three, as in more forested, and is much quieter in the winter. There is also a 2.5 mile long thoroughfare at the northern end of the lake, connecting to a smaller Upper Priest Lake, which is even quieter with no cabins.

Every time I drive out to Priest Lake, I’m reminded quite a bit of Huntington Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, which is a lake where we had a family cabin when I was growing up. Except that Priest Lake is almost twenty times as big in area. Both are big in fishing, hiking and camping.

Priest Lake's Huckleberry Bay on the north side

Huckleberry Bay on the north side of Priest Lake.

The contractor was Mike Sandau of Sandau Builders. If you ever want to build on Priest Lake, I would highly recommend using them. Special thanks to Marie Dominique Verdier, who took these beautiful photos. And of course, a big thanks to the homeowners, who were great to work with, and who I won’t name so they can keep their privacy.

John Hendricks, AIA Architect

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Hendricks Architecture specializes in the design of mountain style homes and cabins, and has been listed yearly among Mountain Living’s top mountain architects. We try to add a little bit of soul into each home, to reflect the personalities and wishes of the homeowners. We’ve designed all over the USA (including many at Priest Lake), and several other countries.

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Sketches to Reality: Designing a Waterfront Home on Priest Lake

October 10, 2013 by John Hendricks, Architect AIA 4 Comments

A waterfront home we designed was recently completed on the shores of Priest Lake in the Selkirk Mountains of North Idaho. I think I can speak for all architects in that it is always gratifying to see sketches become reality.

Home on Priest Lake

Our client wanted a “mountain rustic timber-framed Arts & Crafts style home.” Among other prerequisites, the home needed to take advantage of the lake views and white sand beaches, include a view tower and window seats, and be spacious and inviting with several large rooms. A small allowable building footprint (made even smaller by flood plain requirements), as well as building height limitations, turned it into a fun puzzle to solve.

Typically I go over with our clients what the requirements are, whether it’s in person, by phone, email, etc. In this case we did all three. There are some clients of ours that I’ve actually never met, and some I’ve never even heard their voice. In this particular case we met in person and went over his initial objectives. We then went over space relationships (kitchen near the mud room, etc.), and after looking it over I gave him an estimation of how many square feet the house would be, as well as how much it would likely cost to build.

Waterfront Home Firepit on Priest Lake designed by Hendricks Architecture

Peek-a-boo view of the house, and a nice place to hang out in the evening.

By the time I start designing we are in mutual agreement on everything, and it’s a matter of me putting it all down on paper. I take out the trace paper and start molding the spaces into a form. At the same time I’m drawing quick form sketches of plans, roof plans and elevations that only I can understand. Sort of like a sculptor artist starting to shape a block of clay (though maybe not quite as elegant).

Rough sketch roof plan design of the waterfront home

A Rough Sketch of a Roof Plan

These sketches are not pretty, and to others may look like chicken scratch. Here is another unedited sketch, this time of the elevation. The roofs don’t work well here for snow runoff, but again these are real quick and the details are figured out once the form is being shaped.

Waterfront home architect sketch on Priest Lake

Rough Elevation Sketch

I rarely show these to clients as many wouldn’t understand them, and might fire us on the spot for using kindergartners to design their house.

Once I have the design basics figured out, I’ll draw a site plan, floor plans and the exterior elevations in more detail to present to the client. I like to give them the entire composition so they can see the overall concept in front of them. This is part of the schematic design phase. You can get a glimpse of the typical architectural process by clicking here. Here is an updated lake-facing elevation. Now the tower has been moved more towards the center of the house. For some finished photos see Priest Lake House.

Waterfront home lake elevation sketch designed by Hendricks Architecture

Lakeside Schematic Elevation

After we’re in agreement on the design, we move onto design development. Here we’ll put these sketches into more defined form on the computer, along with any changes requested by the client. Here is the same elevation after it’s modified and drawn in the computer. See if you can see what the changes were.

Once we agree on the design here, we’ll start drawing up construction documents, which will be detailed enough for contractors to price and build from. Here again is the lakeside elevation with applicable notes and tags.

Here is a photo of the final product, again from the lakeside elevation to be consistent. This photo doesn’t show all the windows of the tower. To actually see them at the same angle as the elevation drawings, I would need to be about 25 feet in the air, or out on the lake (where the tower and lake “see each other”).

Many thanks to Sandau Builders of Priest Lake, who did an excellent job as the building contractor. Jane Scott Design lent her expertise to the Arts & Crafts interior design. Barcus Engineering did the structural design. Mingo Mountain Woodworking did an awesome job with the woodworking throughout the house.

Hendricks Architecture specializes in the design of timber mountain style homes and cabins, not only at Priest Lake, but throughout North America. Our homes have been featured in Timber Home Living, Mountain Living, Cowboys & Indians, Cabin Life and other publications. If you are interested in a mountain home, or you have any other inquiries, please contact us.

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Mexico Beach House: The Infinity Edge Pool

February 4, 2013 by John Hendricks, Architect AIA Leave a Comment

As mountain architects predominantly specializing in mountain style homes, we aren’t asked very often to design infinity edge pools on the building sites. For this hilltop Mexican style beach house, near the city of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, we were given the opportunity, designing an organically shaped home and infinity edge pool hovering over the Pacific Ocean.

Beach House Infinity Pool Hendricks Architecture

Mexico Beach House Infinity Pool

The site is steeply sloping, with a guest house towards the top, the main residence in the center, and the pool just below. The guest house, pool, and landscaping are being constructed in phase one, with the main house to follow later.

Beach House Infinity Pool Sunset Architects

Sunset view from the Mexico Beach House

These photos show the recently completed pool. Infinity edge pools, also called vanishing edge pools, have no curb on the down-slope side, so the water cascades over the edge. At the right angles, this gives the illusion of the water continuing into an ocean, lake, or river beyond. There is a different affect when there is a city, forest or other landscaping beyond, though it can be just as dramatic, if not more so. The water cascades over the edge, into a receiving channel, and is recycled back into the pool.

The curved pool in this case is similarly matched with the organically shaped Mexico beach house design. For a plan of the existing site, see our previous post Beach Home on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

Pool tile architectural detail for beach house

Pool tile detail

This particular pool is intricately detailed in Mexican style, and creates its own shimmering light show under sunlight. Thousands of elliptical glass tiles were placed one at a time at the bottom of the pool, with even smaller square tiles along the walls, curb, and outer walls into the drainage basin . Needless to say, labor is cheap in Mexico.

The organically shaped concrete pool from below

Many thanks to Sandau Builders for sending me these photos. Most of us in the Northern Hemisphere can only dream about places like this during the winter.

John Hendricks, AIA Architect

At Hendricks Architecture, we specialize in the mountain architectural style, but have designed all over the spectrum, from beach houses in Mexico to storybook cottages in the northeastern United States. We’re located in Sandpoint, Idaho. Click to Subscribe to Hendricks Architecture’s Blog.

Beach Home on Mexico’s Pacific Coast

November 8, 2012 by John Hendricks, Architect AIA Leave a Comment

Hendricks Architecture has designed a beach home which is currently under construction on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, near the city of Zihuatanejo. Designing these Coastal Homes is always an enjoyable experience, especially when the property delivers awe inspiring views of the coastline as well as whale activity and ocean sunsets.

Mexico Beach Home – The Guest House

The hilltop guest house over the garage is being built first, along with the landscaping and pool. The more organic main home will be constructed at a later date. One of the owner’s favorite elements on the site is the infinity pool, which will hover over the ocean below.

Mexico Beach Home – Infinity Pool Construction

This seaside home has some similarities to the mountain architecture style we typically design, such as timbers and gable roofs. It also has many differences such as the concrete structure for moisture and thermal efficiency. The main house will also have spacious rooftop decks.