Michigan House Envy: You can own an island and the mansion and railroad on it

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This amazing house designed by Irving Tobocman would dazzle a viewer in any setting, but it happens to stands on its own small island.

It has the clean straight lines, the open views, the graceful proportions and the white-and-glass palette that distinguish a Tobocman house.

It also has a 360-degree view of water, a playscape, a tree house and an extensive patio that hangs over the lake with life-size statues of leaping horses and heroic humans.

Finally it has a scaled-down rideable railroad, including a train station and a trestle tunnel. The owner built it for his daughter Sonia when she was little, he said, but now it’s adult party guests who climb on and ride.

The whole place, listed for sale at $2,899,000, was built 20 years ago as a getaway house, a party house and a guest house by Dr. Raj Bothra, who is an architecture enthusiast.

Bothra with his wife, Pammi, have hired Tobocman to design four projects now and counting — their main house in Bloomfield Hills, this second house on Lotus Lake in Oakland County’s lake district, his medical office in Warren and a new retail/residential project coming to Royal Oak.

“I’ve wanted him to do a house for me in Bombay,” Bothra said. “I’m still hoping that some day I’ll take him there.”

Bothra grew up as a student in England. He loved that country’s famous Lake District, where he first saw white houses on islands. He found a similar landscape in Michigan, he said: “Michigan is so beautiful, so much water and so many islands.”

He hunted for a small island the size of Lotus Island — one acre. “On an island of 5, 10 acres, you don’t get the feel of the island,” he said. “You get the feel of a lakefront house.”

It is a true island, so you get there with a 100-foot boat ride, or in winter you can walk across ice. At first Bothra thought of a bridge, but dropped that because of lake-use rules and questions of boaters’ right of way.


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