A Zen Landscape Design

Reading – Award-Winning Design

A stunning Asian-influenced woodland garden filled with museum-quality art and plants, set in a mature white pine forest — this was the homeowners’ dream. The problem? Every view was scarred by the utilitarian driveway necessary for access to the house. A multipurpose entrance area was needed with intuitive, aesthetic, and functional circulation patterns to guide the visitors, homeowners, and vehicles to four different doors, as well as to the decks and home studio.

Presented with these unique challenges, we designed a solution that was 100% functional and 100% aesthetic. The parking area was now the crowning glory of the site, a focal point seen from numerous vantage points.

Used as stepping stones, local granite slabs cut to precise lengths provided functionality and tickled the aesthetic delight of the clients. All angles of the new Kyoto-style courtyard provide rich vistas and vignettes with plants, sculptural elements, a ledge, and a pine tree canopy as finishing flourishes.

This landscape design won an International Design award from the Association of Professional Garden Designers in 2016 and was featured in DESIGN New England Magazine in January 2014.