There's a Summer Place!

There’s a Summer Place

BRICC award-winning landscape architect creates a new design for a historic home, inspired by a family’s childhood memories of Hyannis Port summers.

By Susan Dewey

Photos by Charles Mayer

Sometimes visions of dream homes are intrinsically shaped by childhood memories. Many of us can envision such a place—and often it’s a summer place—where we were young, innocent of care, and simply happy in a landscape of unrestrained natural beauty—a place like Hyannis Port’s Squaw Island.

Once described by a summer resident, a member of the locally renowned Humphreys family of Pittsburgh, as the “ultimate summer paradise for children,” Squaw’s magic is a natural consequence of its unique seaside location, set off by a narrow causeway that winds out to a private island. This is a magical Cape Cod getaway where kids can sail, clam, ride bikes, and savor nature’s glories all summer long.

Squaw Island has been a celebrated summer community for decades. One of Hyannis Port’s most famous residents, JFK, once had a home here.

Landscape architect, Bernice Wahler of Bernice Wahler Landscapes of Sandwich says that when she was approached by a couple who wanted to remodel a historic, yet outdated home and landscape in part of Hyannis Port’s historic district into an expansive

oasis for their family, she understood the importance of the couple’s Hyannis Port summer memories.

Wahler explains that at every step in the project’s long completion, she and her team of designers were guided by the location’s historic roots. “Hyannis Port is a historical gem that also offers enchanting sunsets and stunning waterfront vistas,” says Wahler. “This turn of the century home with majestic views of the sound is in a one-of-a-kind coastal location, rich with history and tradition.”

From an elevated vantage point above the marshes of Squaw Island, the stunning property overlooks a private beach and an extensive, 152-foot-long boardwalk connecting the beach to the home and its windswept outdoor spaces, a dream location for summer living.

“The homeowner was excited to return to the site of his Cape Cod childhood summers,” says Wahler, who has more than 23 years of environmental permitting and landscape design business experience, providing award-winning services to customers on Cape Cod, the Islands, and throughout New England.

“The boardwalk’s construction was no easy feat. It required meticulous planning and perseverance to navigate the complex local and state permitting process.”

“The homeowner envisioned a landscape that would connect him to happy summer times riding bikes around the neighborhood. The couple emphasized the importance of maintaining the home’s original design and gave priority to the conservation of the natural landscape.”

Wahler, whose company has a well-earned reputation for tackling challenging Cape and Islands locations that require both aesthetic vision balanced with a comprehensive understanding of permitting needs, grading requirements, and awareness of sensitive environmental/conservation issues, was guided by the homeowner’s belief in stewarding the location’s unique habitat. Wahler notes that the project included a particularly complicated, invasive plant removal project, on a coastal bank that rolls down to the Nantucket Sound.

“The homeowner’s goal was to create a space that upheld ecological values while balancing man-made and natural elements,” says Wahler. “Our landscape plan incorporated masses of flowing beach grasses, cultivated naturalized areas, and trail connections leading to a breathtaking boardwalk. The combination of these textures creates a visual tapestry that evokes a warm sense of coastal tranquility.”

The main entrance of this house is tucked behind a hedge of Privet shrub and roses with a focus on privacy. “This front courtyard is bookended with a mixed shrub border that offers visual interest, while also fitting contextually into the surrounding natural landscape,” Wahler notes. “Ornamental grasses mixed with Hydrangeas and roses create a distinctly Cape Cod plant palette that serves as a colorful backdrop for outdoor living.”

Wahler, who believes in the importance of artistically rendered hardscape elements for walkways, terraces, and walls makes note of the landscape’s sophisticated, yet simple and streamlined structural elements.

“The details and selection of the hardscape materials were influenced by the home’s historic façade and style,” says Wahler. “Careful attention was given to the scale of the paving materials. Custom granite pavers in a brick shape create the walkways and terraces, reflective of the more delicate scale of the surrounding architecture.”

The choice of a light, beige-colored granite paving paired with a wall of native fieldstone reflects the tone of the adjacent sandy seashore, blending seamlessly with the marsh grasses beyond.

“A structural retaining wall on the waterside acts as a functional barrier, protecting the coastal bank from erosion, pollution, and human encroachment,” Wahler explains. “Invasives were removed along the existing coastal bank and replaced with swaths of native grasses, shrubs, and three-season perennials including New England Aster, Cone Flower, and Hyssop enhancing the maritime habitat for migrating birds and wildlife. The planting palette introduced native, Prairie Drop into the ornamental plantings along the wall to further blur the lines between the natural and ornamental landscapes.”

A boardwalk leading to the private beach is a focal point of the landscape design. Stretching out into the Sound, it weaves its way through the salt marsh and connects the land with the untamed beauty of the coastline. “The boardwalk’s construction was no easy feat,” says Wahler. “It required meticulous planning and perseverance to navigate the complex local and state permitting process. Yet, the result is an awe-inspiring pathway that allows users to immerse themselves in the coastal environment.”

Wahler stresses that the pine boardwalk decking was sourced from environmentally friendly, FSC-certified

forests, which are engineered to handle the harshest weather conditions. “The decking offers a hardwoodlike durability without sacrificing the health of the protected tropical hardwood forests,” Wahler says. “The wood does not splinter and contains no toxins, or chemicals, making it the perfect choice for barefoot living!”

Wahler notes that the construction of the project entailed what she refers to as “a robust intervention to the placement of the home. Because of the way the house previously sat on the land, the original structure had to be lifted 15 feet in the air, rolled eastward for five feet, and then set on a completely new foundation,” she says. “This decision was important, creating a drainage system away from the house and solving issues with

interior architectural elements that required updating for a modern, multi-family lifestyle.”

Along with this drastic structural modification, most of the site is in a non-development area and all exterior adjustments had to go through extensive design and conservation permitting at the state and local levels prior to implementation.

As a FEMA designated zone, this site was identified as a flood risk, and this posed several limitations when meeting different buffer zones and salt marsh edges. In accordance with the ecological limitations at hand, Wahler and her team made a strategic decision to optimize the remaining outdoor areas, adjusting the site grades to allow for a lower level with open vistas to the ocean beyond.

Native plants were chosen whenever possible to create a coastal vernacular that stabilizes the bank and controls runoff.

“Planting in a salt marsh presents a distinct set of challenges, such as competition from invasive species, potential disturbances of existing ecosystems, and the need for careful monitoring to ensure the successful establishment and long-term maintenance of plant communities,” says Wahler. “Early on in the project we collaborated with Wilkinson Ecological Design

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and established a focus for the planting that was grounded in careful implementation of native plant species, harnessing their inherent potential to thrive.”

When Wahler is asked what the “wow factor” of this project is—the defining spark that led to her firm’s October 2023 BRICC Award for Excellence in Outdoor Living Design, she doesn’t hesitate to point to a uniquely successful collaboration between her company’s designers, the homeowners, and the project’s engineers, architects, and contractors.

“There was remarkable dedication and effort invested into preserving the historical bones of the home, while carving out usable, contemporary spaces on such an environmentally protected and sensitive historic site,” she says. “The extensive restoration work carried out on the home and landscape was a collective undertaking, with the homeowners committing substantial resources to ensure their property positively impacts the surrounding environment. The combined result is just captivating.”

Other businesses who took part in the project include Jill Neubauer Architects, Interior designer Clodagh, E.B. Norris & Son, Sullivan Engineering, Wilkinson Ecological, and Francisco Tavares Landscape Contractors.

Bernice Wahler Landscapes is located in Sandwich. For more information, go to bernicewahlerlandscapes.com.

Susan Dewey is a freelance writer and former associate publisher and editor of Cape Life Publications. She is also a landscape designer at Dewey Gardens located in Centerville.

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