Gallery

This project is located in an older neighborhood.  A pool, entertainment patio and outdoor kitchen were requisite. Driving this project were the narrow setback restrictions. The answer was an equipment room that doubled as a storage shed. It also created the backdrop for the pool, patio and...

This backyard was all about entertaining family and friends – the view was a bonus! We took a disjointed existing backyard during a time of extensive interior renovation and completely re-worked the exterior.  Included in the design is a new outdoor kitchen, shade structure, patios, fireplace, pool, spa, planting and lawn. We editing existing trees to provide visual corridors and added trees to eclipse undesirable views. All this and being mindful of the rare opportunity to include much of the Santa Clara Valley below and the Santa Cruz Coast range beyond as the backdrop to summer evening entertainment....

They liked the look of a neighbor’s backyard landscape and pool that had been constructed a few years ago. The backyard was long and narrow and they wanted to do something in the same style for their backyard.  Turns out I did their neighbor’s back yard (see San Jose project in Gallery) so I got the call.  Although you can never duplicate a landscape design due to site conditions and client’s wishes, the former landscape was the inspiration for later. I included a before snapshot so you can see the contrast.  

The owner loves traditional, extravagant formality but has a modern and quirky edge to his design sense as well which pops up from time to time in the design of the interior. So, for the outside, we followed suit: From the details of the shade structure, pizza oven and BBQ, to the grand steps leading to the pool and beyond, almost every element was an opportunity to mix it up with unexpected materials and planting. Below the pool the hillside is devoted entirely to vineyards and grape...

This site is awesome! Set among the oaks and redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Woodside, the scale of this natural setting is spectacular and dwarfs most landscape features. That’s why the pool is 98 feet long and the arbor columns at the far end are twelve feet tall! Alignment of the driveway down the slope was important to create the dramatic entrance that the site demands. Our work also encompassed the upper terrace and quite literally every inch of this three acres site with plantings, gazebos, dry creek beds and other built amenities. These few pictures don’t even begin to tell the story.      ...

The owner of this beautiful Monte Sereno estate had an intriguing list of requirements, not the least of which was an eight foot deep koi pond with an equipment/viewing vault below water level. Contrasting the pond’s informality the pool, terrace, fire pit, outdoor kitchen and fireplace are over the top formal in design. All these elements are visually linked by the park-like, undulating...