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Datum Frame

Location
Hubbard Lake, Michigan

Date 2006

Description
This is the design for a small boathouse that will sit alongside Lake Hubbard in Northern Michigan.  The site includes a movable boat-launch system that allows a small boat to be easily moved between the water and the boathouse.  In addition to providing dry and secure storage for the boat, the structure provides both open-air and semi-enclosed areas for relaxation, eating and viewing.

The form of the building comes from the framing of opposing views of the site: the wooded area to the West and the lake to the East.  The stepped floor-planes and end-wall apertures unite the perceptual datum of the horizon with the rectilinear geometry of the structure itself.  In this way the building becomes a staging platform for the intersection of land, water and sky.