GRAY No. 3

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magine writing a short story to describe each destination in your landscape. That’s how landscape designer Scot Eckley of Seattle-based Scot Eckley, Inc., approached a project to renovate a mismatched series of patios, decks, and terraces surrounding his clients’ contemporary Mercer Island home.

The professional couple loved the seclusion their sunrise-facing property offered, but its outdoor spaces did nothing to lure them there. Tucked into a heavily wooded area, the home had initially received some interior renovations. By 2010, the owners turned their focus to the landscape, where more than 40 huge containers cluttered the grounds like paratroopers dropped

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GRAY ISSUE No. three

from the sky. What the property—and its residents— needed was harmony and order.

Eckley suggested a master plan for the three-acre hillside property to work in tandem with the new driveway, auto court, garage, and guest quarters designed by Seattle architect Michael K. Gibson.

Eckley used elegant details to better define the outdoor living spaces and suggested low-maintenance ornamental shrubs and Northwest natives for the ravine, walking trails, and perimeter borders.

During the design process, Eckley and his clients “ended up giving names to all the different decks, corridors, and spaces,” he explains. At first this shorthand