Roxborough Garden One

The project encompasses both the front and rear gardens. The design for the rear 600 sf garden intensifies and makes architectural the extreme sloped and treed condition of this site which overlooks a ravine park. Existing mature maples and ailanthus on and adjacent to the site soar over 75 feet and create a solid canopy. The tri-partite plan incorporates stone patios at the top and bottom connected by a steel stair and terminated by a large steel frame that looks onto, and frames the park beyond. The stair floats in the sloped field of tall shade plantings and seven new trees. Flowering perennials will soar over the tall green carpet. The trees were all chosen for their compelling bark – Paper Birch, Shagbark Hickory, Paperbark Maple, Flowering Dogwood and Redbud – and are under-storey trees destined to eventually replace the mature and soaring canopy above. The front garden is planted with an orchard of serviceberry and redbuds to provide a strong presence on the street, and create a spatial transition between street and house. Our work included negotiating a ravine permit as the rear garden encroached on ravine lands.