PROJECT STATUS | BUILT
PROJECT BACKGROUND
We came on board on this project when the house was under construction and all decisions for site planning had already been made. These are files from ToroFerrer Architects, who recommended us to the client to further develop a landscape design.
The house is very modern in design, with large driveway to one side, a gazebo at the entrance and a covered outdoor patio by the pool. A snaking bike path for the children at the end called for trees and palms to articulate the experience.
SITE LOCATION
In this aerial image, the long stretch of the double lot is apparent, as well as the proximity of other nearby homes. There were very small changes in topography. In fact, since the outset, there were drainage problems.
EXISTING CONDITIONS
View of the pool pavilion and pool under construction when we joined the project. Fortunately, tall palms and trees outside the lot provided a lush backdrop.
The square openings for planting palms at the pool deck were already made and it was too late to suggest treatment against compaction or proper drainage. As always, site and existing soil are ravaged during construction. Large amounts of subsoil was mounded in the back yard and corners of the lot
A custom-designed concrete fence called for some creativity to soften or play with its presence, as it was making the lot seem smaller. A tall concrete wall on the other side called for immediate planting.
View of the backyard from a pile of fill with the children's bike path already built
BASE PLAN
This plan and programmatic elements were our given framework. A sort of daunting empty space all around the paved areas, with no context surrounding the lot lines, to be filled in.
PRELIMINARY CONCEPT
The linear narrow form of the lot and the stretched nature of the building design, broken in rectangular blocks shifted across the space, called for acknowledging the pattern in plan. The beginning of a geometry of bars and lines playing with curvilinear shapes started to emerge, as if the building was extending itself into the garden areas
THE MURAL
While working in plan, we were thinking of a mural to add in the pool terrace as a backdrop for palms, as it was done in many glorious garden designs of the 1950s and 1960s. So, we started working at two scales, both in plan and in elevation, just as Roberto Burle Marx did in some of his greatest designs in Brazil.
The mural had similar linear patterns to those that were developing for the site garden plan. It could be in concrete and would add a vertical space to extend the design. It would be a place to add relief and shadow patterns and could incorporate bromeliads and other epiphytes
SCHEMATIC DESIGN
Schematic design was done, as we often do, in illustrative form, working with freehand lines and color pencils using only trace paper. Drawing by hand is still the most powerful way for us to develop design ideas and could never be skipped by using computer programs at the very start. This drawing shows the skeleton of the garden, the linear bones that will become planters, plant borders, steps or hedges. It is suggesting what could happen at the ground rather than in three dimensions and all is still open to interpretation.
In this layer of trace, the drawing becomes a preliminary planting plan, giving space for annotation of what the garden will be. Some of the narrow segments have become palms in linear rows, shifting back and forth diagonally in the garden areas so that when sitting, the actual pool area extends further into the backyard beyond. Syagrus romanzoffiana or Colombian foxtail is taking two rows to the back of the pool terraces, while two rows of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) are framing the front yard and the pool.
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
In this phase of the design process, we start blocking the ideas into specific hardscape materials and plant selections. The drawings become technical, precisely showing the location, measurement, and nature of all materials proposed. The huge front lawn called for a narrow pattern of herbaceous perennials and tropical lilies that mark the stepping down of narrow linear lawn terraces. This is a parterre that extends from each corner of the house and adds color and texture upon entering the garden. We almost always develop our planting plans by hand before drafting them in AutoCAD.
ENTRANCE GATE
The lawn area outside and immediate inside the gate and railing received a carefully studied design of ground covers and ornamentals below the palms.
TWO YEARS AFTER PLANTING
Our scope of work did not include construction administration, so the garden was built without our involvement. As a result, many things were built differently from what was originally specified in the drawings. In particular, the drainage and soil preparation did not align with our specifications, which may have impacted the normal growth of certain palms and trees in the long term. Additionally, the linear parterre stepping down in the front lawn, a key feature in the site design, was not built.
FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER PLANTING
We visited the garden only after 15 years from its construction. The Date palms and Columbian foxtails have grown but show signs of decadence for lack of drainage at their roots. The lawn is compacted, looks soggy, and is full of moss. In the first image, the Columbian foxtail palms to the right side of the pool pavilion show drastically uneven growth among each other rather than the same height in their row after 15 years.
