PERCHED ON THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN, the program for this home focused on maintaining and accentuating its panoramic mountain views, creating an interactive landscape for gardening and outdoor hobbies, and maintaining accessibility to site features that allow for inclusivity for their entire family.

Grade naturally falls away from the rear of the house, allowing the primary patio space to be sunken below the screen porch and lower level of the home, keeping views unobstructed from inside.  The custom potting shed, complete with sedum covered green roof, sits lower yet to maintain the view from the patio, Ipe deck, and hot tub free and open.  Selections of low-growing garden plants further strengthen the goal.

With gardening as a hobby for the homeowners, elements like the green-roofed potting shed and fenced vegetable garden were necessary.  The plantings are heavy with perennial flowers such as Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Leucanthemum, Liatris, Perovskia, Salvia, Coreopsis, Nepeta, and more) many of which are great for cut flower arrangements that are commonly brought into the house.  Blooms stagger throughout the summer, so the landscape is always colorful and changing.

Mindful of accessibility and inclusivity to the primary outdoor spaces, this is achieved by creating a flush, covered entry to the lower level of the home and screened porch.  Additionally, hardscaped ramps descend through the landscape to the central patio, firepit area and the deck allowing for access to the hot tub.

Materials used in this project include concrete pavers by Techo-bloc, natural cleft-face bluestone steps, and New Hampshire fieldstone walls w/ bluestone caps and accents.