JLA named Best-in-State Residential Architect by Forbes for 2025

Longview House, near Frankfort, Michigan. Photo by James Haefner.

Petoskey architecture firm one of six in state of Michigan selected for recognition

PETOSKEY, MI, UNITED STATES, September 26, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Forbes magazine has selected Jonathan Lee Architects (JLA) as one of AMERICA’S BEST-IN-STATE RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTS for 2025. The Forbes list, published in September, highlights 400 designers across the country whose residential design work stands apart for its excellence.
JLA was one of only six architecture practices in the state of Michigan to be selected.

Forbes assessed more than 20,000 architecture practices, inviting 1,000 of them to submit entries, which were then judged on a variety of criteria, including: Siting and Local Context, Architectural Form and Detail, Building Materials and Craft, Physical and Psychological Effects, and Appropriateness to Region and Local Climate Zone.

“Now having painstakingly conducted that research ourselves, in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, for the purpose of our inaugural America’s Best-in-State Residential Architects List, we’re that much clearer about the critical importance of the role of the architect in society in 2025, the critical importance of finding the right architect, locally,” said Richard Olsen, Forbes senior editor covering architecture.

JLA’s entry, Longview, is a private residence near Frankfort, Michigan. The house is so named because it commands a view across the longest reach—eight miles—of Crystal Lake. It features a load-bearing heavy timber frame with shingle walls and roof. About 9,700 board feet of longleaf pine timbers were harvested from a nineteenth-century industrial warehouse for the framing.

“Longview is contextually one of the more important pieces we’ve done because of its location on Crystal Lake, adjacent to Crystal Downs Country Club, a world-renowned Alister MacKenzie-designed golf course,” said firm founder Jonathan Lee. “The site also has historical significance to the community because the house that stood there originally was designed by Alexander McColl, who designed Crystal Downs’ clubhouse and several notable homes on course grounds in the 1920s. My client has a generational connection to the club and the community, and I wanted to honor that through the design.”

“We are proud of Longview and thrilled to be recognized by Forbes as one of the best residential design firms in the U.S.,” Lee added. “We work very hard here to create thoughtful, enduring designs that grow more and more beautiful over time.”

Andrea Lee
Jonathan Lee Architects
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