Raingarden in August bloom. (Lobelia Cardinalis, Eupatorium purpureum, Rubeckia Subtomentosa)
Side patio paving detail
Layout plan for driveway and landscape.
A detail of the layout plan.
The front yard and driveway before construction.
The front yard during construction.
View from the street after construction.
A view of the driveway to the right and the front walkway to the left.
The front walkway provides access to the new kitchen stoop and front porch.
Aerial image of the front yard plantings and walkway.
A quick 3D sketch of the front stoop design.
Installing the kitchen stoop.
A view from the backyard of the pavers being installed.
A view of the driveway during construction before the asphalt was laid.
The backyard and garage interface before construction.
The backyard after construction.
View of back patio and the integration with the existing landscape and structures.
The gravel base for the rain garden swale being installed.
Planting the rain garden swale.
The drainage plan for the driveway. Towards the street, the driveway is crowned and water is directed into planting beds. Towards the garage, water is directed away from the house and driveway and into the rain garden.
The raingarden in early spring when the Monkey Flowers (Mimulus alatus) have started blooming.
430 Pine Drive
For this project, I was asked by the client to design a new driveway and surrounding landscape for their pre-war home on the south shore of Long Island. The client had constructed a new detached garage and was relocating and extending the driveway along their side yard. This required redesigning a large portion of the front yard including the approach from the street, the pathway to the main entrances, and the stoop leading up to the kitchen door. In addition, the design required integrating the garage and driveway into the existing wooded landscape and deck in the backyard.
I designed a series of three circular patios that integrate the driveway with the backyard, the side entrance to the house, and the kitchen entrance. The flagstone backyard patio creates an additional space off of the deck for gathering and barbecuing. A shallow stairway spirals off of the patio and leads into the wooded landscape below. The side patio takes advantage of the close proximity of the driveway to the house in this location by extending the concrete unit pavers into the asphalt driveway. This reduces the amount of asphalt and creates a new overlapping multi-functional space. The circular front patio is embraced by a bluestone stoop which transition into a raised planter along the front of the house. All three patios are connected by a walkway that leads around the house and back to the garage.
A sweeping curved walkway of flagstone set in gravel peels off of the driveway in the front yard for access to the kitchen and front doors. This curve is echoed in bands of shrub and ground cover plantings that extend from the house out to the street.
Because of the existing topography, the driveway could not be pitched toward the street and so drainage needed to be handled on site. The design turns this challenge into an opportunity to handle stormwater in a sustainable manner. Sheet drainage directs the water into a rain garden swale to the south of the driveway. The site of the rain garden receives only partial sun during much of the day, and so a palette of woodland perennial wildflowers, grasses, and ferns with a variety of colors and bloom times was chosen. The end result is a landscape feature that is both highly functional and attractive.