I have lots of clients that make good moves, architecturally. I marvel at how people manage to build beautiful homes-no matter the problems. The problems don’t show in the end; this I like. I would never want a visitor to any of my gardens to be burdened with a discussion of what didn’t work. I just want them to enjoy what they see. I am probably old school in this regard. The interiors of my client’s houses so represent a working knowledge of design, a clear vision of what they need to live, and lots of personal touches. Naturally, they like that same visual discussion outdoors.
This really beautiful French country style house was hidden behind an early and not so compelling landscape; my clients knew this full well. An ancient spruce under attack from gall, that hid the house was taken down. Don’t think I take old trees down capriciously-I do not. This spruce was fast approaching the end of its lifespan. I did not want to design around it.
The property had steep grades, and drainage issues both. I made use of a bulldozer. That machine of mine can make quick work of a lot of ills. Just being able to see the front door was a big improvement.
I had in my mind that big Belgian made wood boxes would benefit this landscape. The wood repeats the wood of the shutters, and makes a statement in support of the country French idea in place from the start. I had the idea to pick up where they finished with the house. Those wood boxes were key.
Though the landscape scheme is very simple, it is a formal scheme dressed down by an unpruned hedge of taxus densiformis. Two tall boxes, and two shorter ones in front seemed appropriate.
A formal statement can be formal to the nines, or gracefully reminiscent of formal. Each project, each house, each client-I try to respond in such a way that the end product seems to belong to the house, and to them.
At this point the big scheme of things begins to be clear. The grading and drainage issues have been addressed. This beautiful house is celebrated by its landscape. The Belgian wood boxes are perfect here. At this point we are discussing a finish for the boxes, and perhaps a new finish for the painted shutters.
The lawn panels are formal, no doubt. They are softened by the plantings in the Belgian boxes, and the wildly representing yews. This scheme makes a presentation of the house that I think represents the feelings of my clients. In my view, success is all about the serious interaction I have with clients. There is a moment, a chunk of time, in which we have a serious exchange. Whatever came before, whatever looms ahead, we had our moment. Notice the finish on the boxes-and a new finish on the shutters.
These beautiful boxwood parterres were existing; I replaced the center element with Belgian wood boxes. This placement is a little unexpected, but repeats the idea of dressed-down formal in a strong way.
These boxes overflowing with flowers make a big statement. Wood in the landscape is a natural. In this case we lined the boxes with sheet metal liners, to improve the longevity of the boxes. The entire scheme is friendly and pleasing to the eye.
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.
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.
