When the house next-door to New York architect Jess Hinshaw became available, she asked her mother, Kathy Lewis, a retiree in Florida, to move in.

"I think the reason I like residential architecture is because of the home my mom created for me growing up," said Hinshaw. "I just wanted her to have a place she loved and felt at home in."

According to Lewis, she succeeded. Moving into a house shaped by such tenderness, she says, “felt like a gift.”