The house seen from across the lake, sitting on its small hill among tall pines, lifted lightly on piers above the slope, with a reflection in the still water in the foreground

Lakehouse

Chapin, South Carolina

The house sits on a small hill above Lake Murray in central South Carolina, on land that abuts the clients’ childhood home. The hill has been called Windy Hill for generations — the tall pines at the top catch cool breezes that the lower ground does not. The clients wanted a house that took the view and the breeze seriously, and that would let them stay in the place as they aged.

We organized the house around a single double-height living volume oriented up the lake, with a long expanse of glazing along the view side. The kitchen, dining, and living spaces share one room; the first-floor master suite sits to one side so that the stairs are never required for daily life. A breezeway connects the garage to the house and is detailed as a screen rather than a wall, so that the breeze the hill is named for moves through the plan instead of around it. A generous deck and a screened porch extend the living spaces outward on the lake side.

Upstairs, a loft and small office overlook the living volume on one side and the lake on the other, with their own deck for the broader view. The double-height room and the open stair keep the upper and lower floors in physical and visual conversation, so that the house reads as one space rather than two stacked ones. The plan is sized to be enough rather than abundant — 2,600 square feet for the whole — and built to be lived in for a long time.

Project Team

Principals

Michael Schanbacher, AIA · Kerri Frick, AIA

View down from the upper loft into the double-height living room, with the blue sectional sofa, the dining chairs, and the tall glazing on the lake side throwing strong winter light across the floor

The living room at evening, looking toward the textured stone fireplace, the pendants hanging the full height of the double-height room, and the tall sheer drapery beside the ceiling fan

The upstairs loft with the wood ceiling raking up toward the ridge, two tall windows framing the lake and the pines, and the open stair railing visible to the right

The screened porch on the lake side, the wood ceiling continuing from inside, a large ceiling fan overhead, and the pines and the water visible through the full-height screens

First floor plan showing the open kitchen-dining-living volume to the lake side, the first-floor master suite, the breezeway connecting the detached garage at left, and the deck and screened porch extending toward the lake — First Floor Plan

Site plan showing the house lifted on a small hill above the lake, with the surrounding pines mapped as tree canopies, a meadow lawn east of the house, a row of orchard trees lining the drive, and the dock at the water's edge — Site Plan