CALIFORNIA
CASUAL

\ ARCHITECT

Lisa Landworth of Landworth Debolske for Rear Addition

\ LOCATION

South Pasadena, CA

\ SCOPE

After years of living in a cramped condo, my clients were very excited to finally have a large garden. Their primary concern was creating a child-friendly garden for their many nieces and nephews to play in. Other requests were a lap pool, fire-pit, ample lawn area and a variety of different spaces within this garden for relaxing and exploration.

I settled on a simple palette of colored pre-cast concrete pavers for both the new patio and the stepping-stones within the lawn. I focused on a very bold and simple pattern that transitions from the patio to the long lawn beyond. I designed a fire-pit that also doubles as a coffee table and wrapped an Ipe wood bench around this area for an instant entertaining spot. Colored throw pillows and cushions are next on the agenda.

My client was fortunate to have a stately existing California Live Oak tree towards the rear of her garden. After pruning this tree for safety and beauty, I created a naturalistic decomposed granite ‘patio’ underneath and installed a series of arced recycled broken-concrete seat walls around this space. The decomposed granite ‘patio’ is an environmentally sensitive approach, allowing rainwater to infiltrate into the water table below, while keeping the water-thirsty lawn away from the canopy of the Oak tree.

In the rear of the garden, broken concrete stepping-stones wind their way in between ferns, providing extra play spaces for the young children.

\ COMPLETION

December 2007