Context
Two busy executives sought an inspiring respite from city, work, and travel. In addition to needing to repair the much disturbed site, the clients desired a landscape that would anchor their new home in the environment and encourage them to be fully immersed in the outdoors.

Concept
A primary focus was to reconcile the new architecture with the landscape at large—using stylized native plantings and integrating hardscaping materials left over from the previous residence. The clients now step out of their house into a gravel courtyard and cutting garden installed directly into the old foundation, and filled with plants they can easily tend to and cut from to make bouquets. From this central courtyard, a network of garden paths made from reclaimed, restored, and carefully reconfigured boulders and bluestone lead to the surrounding features. A wooden deck encourages outdoor gatherings, a sculpted meadow explodes with color throughout the seasons and leads down to a lakeside floating dock, a hill-top hot tub provides a secluded perch from which they can observe it all.

Impact
The lakeside property abuts a designated NYC watershed wetland and a significant portion of the property is located in a DEC protected wetland buffer zone. The meadow installation and plantings were vetted by the DEC using no chemicals or machinery and restricting the plant palette to northeastern US natives.