APLD Members ~ Member of the Month
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May Featured Member of the Month
Thomas Fitzsimmons, APLD
Pine Brook, New Jersey
A Backyard Retreat
The goal of the project was to create an informal design while carrying a naturalistic water theme throughout the entertaining areas.
Our client wanted a mountain edge pool, along with a spa that would be able to accommodate large social gatherings. They also wanted a three tier waterfall with the last tier being big enough for several people. Having, a young family the client also wanted a kiddy pool incorporated into the idea as well. They also wished for a small koi pond with an area of turf for playing sports.
The design that wished to be incorporated had a few challenges concerning layout and structure. The first challenge was creating a raised buffer to block a main neighborhood thoroughfare directly adjacent to the rear property line on a fairly level piece of land. The design team took advantage of the rear berm for the buffer and incorporated into the naturalistic mountain edge. The elevations had to be raised substantially to accommodate the huge waterfall. The waterfall which was made of local field stone boulders was tied into the boulder beam along the entire read length of the pool.
To establish the natural flow of water from the pond to the kiddy pool, we used the same style boulders from the waterfall in the ponds design. This gives the appearance water flowing naturally thru the aquatic landscape and into the pool under a bridge rock. The concrete gunnite wall disguised under the Kearney stone bridge rock, matching the dive rock, separates the pond water from the pool water.
The diverse landscape that was created around the pool and pond creates a very “naturalistic” feeling. We used over 70 varieties of woody trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, groundcovers, and ornamental grasses, to be incorporated into this now picturesque yard/retreat area.
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Most of the backyard/retreat has a curved design that is contrasted by the upper patio which echoes the architecture of the house. In seeing this we really tried to bring out the architecture of the house by exploiting hard lines with pattern grey quartzite stone. The outdoor kitchen that we installed has a sink and a Weber grill built into a chunk bluestone enclosure with a honed and sealed bluestone counter top. These hard architectural lines of the house and patio are softened along the edges and transition areas by the whimsical plantings.
The main view of the area was obviously the pool, which sits near the heavily planted berm. This pushed the focus of the design to the one side of the yard leaving a large area of turf for playing sports on the opposite side.
Certified Members seeking to be profiled should send before and after photos with SHORT design intent statement to:
Bethany Dennis
APLD Communications Manager
Email: communications@apld.org
Phone: 717-238-9780
* PHOTOS SHOULD BE CLEAR COLOR PRINTS OR JPEG COMPRESSED FILES