Bemus Bay Condominiums

Forty lake homes, designed after the hotels that stood here.

Bemus Bay is a year-round resort condominium on Chautauqua Lake in the Village of Bemus Point. Three wood framed hotels stood on this site around the turn of the 20th century, and all three burned. One old hotel still stands next door, the Lenhart, and the village required that nothing new rise above its highest point. It took numerous village meetings to get the project approved.

The first design had a high gabled roof with dormers. When the owners decided they needed more units, the only way to get them was a fourth floor, so the roof became a mansard. The buildings are designed in a Victorian style to reflect the character of the old hotels, with covered front porches, details in a historic style, and the octagonal balconies at the corners that recall one of them.

Before the hotels, the point had been a Native American camp site. An archaeological study had to be done before the excavation could go ahead. It found numerous campfires with animal bones, and no burials or dwellings, which suggests game was driven down to the point and cooked there. After the study, the digging resumed.

There are 40 condominium homes, from 1,700 to 2,200 square feet of living space. Each has a parking garage, unobstructed views of the lake from its porches and decks, and a reserved marina slip for the summer.

The project also includes one system that handles rainwater, used household water, and water for fire protection. It has rain gardens too, which are planted areas that soak up rain. All the rainwater stays on the property and goes back to the lake after the ground and plants filter it. Ciminelli Construction built it. Structural engineering was by Siracuse Engineers of Buffalo and civil engineering by Erdman Anthony.