Historic homes, established neighborhoods, mature landscapes, and newer residences all sit within a community where the relationship between a house, its property, and the surrounding streetscape matters.

That becomes especially important when a home needs to change.

An addition has to feel right from the street. A renovation has to work with the architecture that is already there. And a new home has to belong to its setting rather than simply occupy it.

Lake Forest's architectural design review process specifically considers how new construction and additions relate to the character of surrounding neighborhoods, including scale, materials, site layout, and architectural character. Certain historic properties and districts are subject to additional preservation review.

For homeowners, that makes the early thinking especially important.

Before deciding what to add, remove, or completely rethink, we look at the home as a whole.

What should stay.
What could change.
And what the property could become.