Architectural and horticultural enthusiasts, antique collectors, design buffs and anyone looking for a perfect way to spend a summer day should mark their calendars for Saturday, June 12. Lakefront Supportive Housing, a Chicago-based nonprofit that has become a national model for ending homelessness, will host its 11th Annual Celebration of Home and Garden—a Benefit Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Chicago time).
This year's fundraising event is a tour of seven spectacular homes and gardens throughout southwestern Michigan (including Harbert, Union Pier, Lakeside, Galien and Buchanan) as well as Michigan City, Ind. All of the homes have been professionally designed by prestigious Chicago and Michiana artists, designers and architects.
Designer Cary Frank of Chicago, co-chair of the event, invites patrons to visit these country residences, cottages and weekend retreats, all of which are as charming, creative and artistic as they are architecturally significant. The homes and gardens to be featured include Chicago architect Dirk Lohan's Pine Lake Orchards, which has a group of three farm houses and a barn from around 1900. A private lake, woods and a hilly landscape makes this 175-acre estate a perfect retreat. Jo and Todd Lief's Country House in Lakeside—designed by Chicago architect Larry Booth—imaginatively integrates the home with its natural surroundings. A dramatic glass entrance hall looks one way toward the woods, and the other toward the prairie, and the comfortable porch, screened on three sides, provides close connection with the forest and the meadow.
Inspired by the vintage cottages in Harbor Country, the family residence of Joyce, Mark and Logan Pitts is truly an eclectic mix—typical Lake Michigan on the outside and an exciting blend of modern art and furnishings on the inside. Selected Scandinavian pine antiques join the family's many Italian 'finds' collected during a two-year stay in Milan. Judy & Leroy Inskeep's Country Getaway & Gardens, also located in Union Pier, is reminiscent of an English country manor. The ever-changing gardens are a match for the opulent fabrics and colorful interior, which includes two major additions and a four-season room.
According to Suellen Long, co-chair of the Home & Garden Tour, 'Other extraordinary highlights include a classic Georgian residence built by a South Bend executive in the 1930s, a fantasy tree house designed by Andy Brown, 30 acres of native flora recreating the original savannah of the area and country cottages filled with collections of wit and whimsy.' Antiques and art collections are a part of each home as well.
Tour-goers will also enjoy some 'little extras,' including frothy fruit drinks in Union Pier at the newly opened Susan Fredman & Associates Interior Design Resource Center. They can also travel back roads, stop at farm stands and experience other lakefront homes, cottages and farms as they complete the tour.
The tour begins at 10 a.m. and will conclude at 5 p.m. (Chicago Time). Tour-goers will check in and pick up their tickets and maps at Lovell & Whyte, 14950 Lakeside Road in Lakeside, Mich., a 90-minute drive from downtown Chicago. Tickets for the tour are $75 in advance and $100 the day of the tour. All proceeds will go toward the work of Lakefront Supportive Housing, whose latest project is an innovative single-room occupancy (S.R.O) building to be designed by world-famous architect Helmut Jahn. For more information or to purchase tickets, phone (773) 561-0900, extension 255, or visit www.lakefront.org .
'We are grateful to the homeowners who support our mission to end homelessness through this celebration of homes,' said Martin Gapshis, co-chair of the Home & Garden Tour. 'Save the date and join us on June 12.'