There are certain homes on this lake that catch your attention. When you walk by, when you boat by, when you drive by, everyone has a house that invites wonder. For my grandmother, that home was Pikewood, the old estate on the North Shore, just a ways to the east of Pebble Point. How she marveled at that classic home. It was modest but inspired, simple but elegant, and for those reasons or many others, it caught her eye. If my grandmother found that home to be worthy of her attention, I can only imagine how many more people were captivated by the home immediately to the west of Pikewood.
Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pennsylvania masterpiece “Fallingwater”, W4443 North Lake Shore Drive has been a favorite of shore path walkers and boat-side gawkers alike since it was built in 1991. The current owners purchased the home in the early 2000s, and have felt honored to spend so many wonderful years in this lakeside retreat. After all, that’s what this home is. A retreat. It isn’t a suburban manse splatted onto a too-small lot. It’s a piece of modern art, skillfully tucked onto this massive estate parcel that measures 224′ at the water’s edge and more than 3.2 acres in wooded depth. I’ve been privileged to represent the finest properties the Lake Geneva market has to offer, and while I enjoy each and every property, there is an emotion attached to this home in this setting that has been unmatched in my career.
I don’t quite know why that is, I should admit. It might be the ten terraces, seemingly one extending out from every interior room in this house, the stone floors from inside running straight past the steel windows and into the exterior lounges. It might be the glass and steel windows and doors, with that tall strip of steel windows that follows the staircase throughout the four finished levels. It’s likely some of that, but mostly it’s the property itself. Lake Geneva tends to manicure until there is nothing left to manicure. Because of this, I find the heavily wooded gravel driveway that leads from North Lake Shore Drive to the home so comforting. It’s careless without being sloppy. It’s simple without being boring. In the same way, the manicured gardens that surround the home, filled with perennial flowers and trees that I have never before seen, stands in such stark contrast to that natural boundary. On the lakefront, lush lawns turn to a buffer of natural grasses and perennials, each changing in shape and color as the year matures.
But those stone patios, and those ten terraces, (each the recipient of meticulous masonry maintenance just completed), and the water feature (an homage to the waterfall that runs under Falling Waters), and the way the home offers up living space and quiet outdoor space for as many lucky weekend guests as you care to entertain. There are four bedrooms here, with an office, main floor den, and upper level lounge with its own fireplace and terrace. If there will be work to be done, there’s no better place to do it than in that handsome cherry office with (unsurprisingly, if you’ve been paying attention), it’s own private terrace. There are three fireplaces, custom cherry cabinetry and built-ins throughout, a two car garage, and remarkable attention to architectural detail.
If you’re looking for a lake house and have found the typical offerings equally tiring and tedious, consider this inspired property on Geneva’s North Shore. The property itself is among the finest our lakefront can offer, and in this case we’re positioned adjacent two recently built estate homes on 181′ and 224′ parcels. Across the street is a native woodland under conservation easement. The setting is divine, the home at once unique and inspired, and it’s available now for the first time in nearly 20 years. $6,575,000