§ 01 · THE FEATURE
Sunsets and Steel
Our Homes Muskoka ran a fourteen-page feature on this Lake Vernon cottage in their Fall 2024 issue. The piece follows the project from ridgeline to waterfront — how steel structure, exposed granite, and careful siting come together on one of the more demanding lots we have worked on.
Story by Walter Franczyk. Photography by Sandy Mackay.
§ 02 · THE PROJECT
Lake Vernon
The Dulong cottage sits at the edge of Lake Vernon on a steep, heavily treed lot with very little flat buildable area. We used steel framing to span the grade change and push the main living level out over the slope — giving the cottage its view without removing a single tree below the building line. The structure sits on the land rather than clearing it.
Every room faces the lake. The living and dining areas float above the rock, anchored by a heavy stone base that reads from the water as a single grounded mass. Steel columns and beams do the structural work quietly — painted out, detailed carefully — so the cedar and stone read first.
§ 03 · THE ISSUE
Our Homes Muskoka, Fall 2024
Our Homes Muskoka is one of the region’s longest-running shelter publications, covering the full range of Muskoka building each season — cottages, boathouses, renovations, interiors. A feature in the magazine is a recognition of work that connects to the place: projects that reflect Muskoka’s materials, landscape, and way of building.
The Fall 2024 issue ran our feature across fourteen pages, covering the full scope of the project from exterior approach to finished interior.
§ 04 · THE SPREAD
Fourteen Pages
The complete Our Homes Muskoka Fall 2024 feature, as published.
§ 05 · THE THROUGH-LINE
Steel Where It Matters
Not every project needs steel. This one did — not as a signature material or a visual statement, but as the only structural logic that made the site work. The steel is mostly invisible. The view is not.
