The interior remodel of this classic four-story shingle style house was nearly complete when our involvement with the project began.

The program required that the street garden adhere to the character of the original architecture while the gardens at the 2nd and 3rd floor terraces utilize the minimalist modern vocabulary of the remodel. The clients desired that these terrace gardens have a contemplative, peaceful quality that would be apparent when occupied and when viewed from the interior of the house. The gardens were to require little maintenance.

While the spatial arrangement and choice of materials in the 2nd floor terrace garden created an effect of broadening the space, the 3rd floor terrace garden aimed to emphasize the verticality of the space.

Project Narrative: The 2nd floor terrace came with a light load capacity and an existing stripe of limestone paving extended from the living room. Unable to include deep planters or other heavy elements, we proposed a composition of offset decks of sustainable hardwood floating in a sea of tumbled river rock. The effect is an ambiguity of scale. Although the actual space is small, the illusion of a larger, geographical space is produced.

A screening fence wraps around the space to become a unifying backdrop, against which one perceives individual elements of the garden. Four horizontal, low profile silicon bronze planters align against the wood screen. Corokia cotoneaster, a shrub from New Zealand, offers its own austere architecture of silvery leaves and twisted black branches.

Drops of sound emanate from a silicon bronze fountain at one end of the 2nd floor terrace. At the opposite end, a piece of extruded deck forms a sitting bench. A stainless steel table with an acrylic top and chairs of stainless steel and wood also occupy the space.

The second phase of the project entailed the design of the 3rd floor terrace. While continuing with the same formal and material language of the 2nd floor terrace, this terrace encompassed a narrow space. We chose to emphasize the vertical dimension on this narrow upper terrace. Vertical silicon bronze planters and a vertical silicon bronze fountain align with the doors and windows to maximize a sense of connection between interior and exterior.