Distinction Awards

This garden is inspired by the Monk’s Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The original garden featured sinewy paths of charcoal brick pavers winding throughout stands of grey birch and paperbark maple, creating a space to meander and contemplate. In our case, the idea was to create an outlook from a new home addition that would remind the client of the garden that they loved. Creating a meandering path on a small site like this would require curves of such a tight radius that brick pavers would not serve. Instead we went with 4-inch x 4-inch charcoal cobbles, and instead of the grey birch, which do not do well in our area, we substituted Himalayan birch. At the ground plane, perennials with chartreuse foliage also pop against the charcoal cobbles, and provide a variety of textures.

Tasked with integrating an existing pool shell into an intimate backyard garden setting, we utilized modern cues from the home’s architecture to create an outdoor living oasis that relies heavily on design principles of form, color, texture, and height. We provided soil improvements, grading, drainage materials, decorative stone, vegetation, metal edging work, irrigation, and LED lighting to achieve our collective vision and goal.