§ 01 · THE FEATURE
Lake Rosseau's Steel on Stone
The Early Summer 2025 issue of Our Homes Muskoka put the Juddhaven Boathouse on its cover — the first time a CPD project has led the magazine. The feature runs fourteen pages inside, covering the full design: how a steel-and-stone boathouse holds to a compressed Lake Rosseau shoreline without fighting the rock it sits on.
For us, the cover was less a milestone than a confirmation. This is the kind of work we came to Muskoka to build.
§ 02 · THE PROJECT
The Juddhaven Boathouse
The site at Juddhaven Point is tight. The shoreline steps down in layers of exposed Canadian Shield granite, and the lot offers almost no flat buildable area near the water. The boathouse had to negotiate all of it — the rock, the grade, the setbacks — and still read as a composed piece of architecture from the lake.
We used steel to span the irregular ledge and eliminate the need for any large footings into the rock face. The structure sits on the granite rather than cutting through it. Stone veneer at the base ties the building to its foundation material. Douglas fir and steel above give it weight without mass.
The upper level is a full Muskoka room — screened, cedar-lined, south-facing. From the water it reads as a single grounded form. From inside it disappears into the view.
§ 03 · THE COVER
Our Homes Muskoka, Early Summer 2025
Our Homes Muskoka has been running since the 1990s — one of the few regional shelter publications with a long enough run to reflect how Muskoka building has changed. A cover placement is the magazine’s choice of what represents the region that season. We were honoured to be selected.
The Early Summer 2025 issue hit newsstands in July 2025. The feature was photographed by Joelle Kidd.
§ 04 · THE SPREAD
The Cover and Fourteen Pages
The complete Our Homes Muskoka Early Summer 2025 feature, as published.
§ 05 · THE THROUGH-LINE
The Rock Was Always There
Every decision on this project came back to the shoreline. The steel spans it. The stone echoes it. The screened room looks over it. We did not make this site — we just tried to be honest about what was already there.
