This contemporary American version of a classic French chateau includes garage wings on either side of the main house. What a beautiful architectural detail- visually treating the garages as living space. This gives the house a very European flavor. The design challenge was providing enough space to turn cars into the garages, and guest parking, without the landscape looking like a commercial parking lot.
The wing walls, finished in large columns add another hard architectural feature to the mix. As there is no hiding so many hard surfaces of this size, why not celebrate them? Selecting a primary material for the drive and drive court came first. The clients decided they liked concrete aggregate as a surface. Though their first choice was gravel, they had legitimate concerns about snowplow damage. Good looking concrete aggregate requires a very skilled contractor; be sure you see samples of work before you sign up.
The concrete aggregate in the drive court was comprised of four sections, based on the turning radius into the garage, and the reverse radius corresponding to the surface needed to back out of the garage. This picture illustrates the aggregate surface I thought necessary to back out gracefully. Four quadrants made it easy to sawcut the aggregate every 100 square feet or so. Large surfaces of concrete require expansion joints, so if there is to be any cracking, the cracking occurs in these joints. The area immediately to the right of the freshly poured concrete in this picture was surfaced in decomposed granite. This change of material is a subtle one, in terms of its texture and color, but definitely a change. This created four curved shapes on the ground, in contrast to the rectilinear shapes of the house. They also repeat the curved roof over the front porch.
Once the drive and drivecourt were finished, it becomes clear that the presentation of the house from the street looks more green than one would have expected. Rectangles of boxwood, and large mugho pines on standard planted in wood boxes are framed by a pair of London planes, inset from each pillar. The plane trees were mulched in decomposed granite.
The last remaining element-a medallion for the center. I had the idea the shape would represent in a very schematic way, the four points of a compass. The blue granite has a highly textured surface, and breaks up the expanse of paving effectively.
Each stone was individually set in mortar, as the thickness of each stone varied a good deal. Natural stone takes so much longer to set, as it is never completely or predictably the same thickness from stone to stone.
The roughness of this stone seemed to ask for a frame. To cut limestone to fit perfectly here would have been very problematic. So we poured a border of mortar, finished to resemble the limestone on the house.
The finished drivecourt is an interested study in shapes and textures, as well as a utilitarian solution for parking.
The decomposed granite was brought outside the wing walls, to better visually integrate the drive and drivecourt. I think the end result is not just austere, but beautifully austere.
The house sits on a piece of property that is very high and steeply sloped. The berms only exacerbated this precarious look; the second order of business was to grade. We dug up as much plant material as we could, and heeled it in. We cut the berms down, and filled in the slope to soften it. We added many more yards of soil. The existing plants we were able to save we grouped together, so every plant had like company, and replanted in another area of the yard. 
The bermed soil right up to the drive edge meant dirt and debris on the drive, non-stop. Any design needs a component that addresses ease of maintenance. I am happy to attend to the maintenance of my pots every day. Needing to sweep debris off a drive every day is annoying. This kind of thing can make people dislike gardening for no good reason. 
Once the grade issues were addressed in a way that worked, we laid out the design. My client likes white, simple and dramatic. She wanted to drive up to that, love it, and then go to her back yard garden to spend time. This first element of drama came from the grading. 
The irregularly sloping and steep ground was graded to slope gently on a consistent angle to the street. Particular care was taken to insure that the view from the house to the street would feature ground with sculptural appeal.
For anyone who likes white, dramatic and simple, Limelight hydrangeas are a logical choice. The dark green yews, and the sleekly trimmed arborvitae make great companions to all the profusion to come.
The walk was redone in chocolate, or lilac bluestone. This is an unusual color, but great looking with the color of the house. The walk is bordered in annuals in the summer, and white tulips in the spring. 
This new look helps to focus some attention on the architecture of the house, and features the front porch. We enlarged the front porch, and repainted all the trim and wood on the house. Sometimes a landscape project can spill over into another area of design. In this case, a new landscape helped generate changes to the house, lighting, and porch.
A pair of large contemporary French faux bois pots flank the front door; what a handsome view this is now. Very friendly formal, I call this. She calls it a blast.