Botanical Decorators | Waverly Way Residence

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Award-Winning LCA Residential Project 2008 Design-Build

Project Description
We were invited into this project shortly after construction of the house was started. The client was building his dream home and wanted the exterior to match the interior level of detail. The client is single and entertains on a grand scale. He also entertains a more intimate scale with friends in for the weekends.

Every square inch would be utilized to get his wish list in which included: parking for four cars in front of the house, a water feature in the front yard, a sense of privacy from the road, a 30' x 75' tentable lawn area, grilling station, dining patio that would seat at least twelve people, a arbored area with a fireplace, heavy screening from the neighbor behind and water features, large water features.

The home was going to be very formal inside and the exterior would also have a very structured feel. To insure that we know what he was looking for he flew the design team on his private jet to two of his favorite gardens. The arbor concept is taken from the Sette hotel in Miami along with the fountains the coble stone bordered lawn panels from a Georgian manor house. The use of old world materials in a clean and slightly contemporary design is what makes this project work.

The property was divided into vignettes – clearly defined spaces that work well together. One flows thru the property effortlessly not realizing that they may be behind the garage or in a side yard. It was the use of these spaces that give this property an eastate style feel even though the lot is slightly over a third of an acre. The use of many different paving patterns gives each area its own flavor. Random geometric quarry stones walks, two by two quarry stone patio as well ass flagstone and cobblestone to create the feel of stepping stone paths. This project is truly detailed from fountains to iron work no detail was left to chance. The client left most all these decisions to us.

The first challenge was the property itself. It had six historic trees that needed to be preserved. The problem, however, was that all were near death and would be hard to plan around. The one large cypress behind the garage was in great health and would need to stay. The balance of the trees were going to need approval to be removed. The second challenge was the entire street drained to low area along the west side property line. This area would need to remain undeveloped.

Tentable lawn and the planting beds to the west would have to be raised 4' to create a level well drain area that could be tented immediately after a rainstorm. Forty truck loads of well drained soil would need to be imported. Another challenge would be the impervious to pervious surface ratio: we would be need every square inch. The cobblestone lawn boarders are only two feet wide but act as walkways to gain access around the house.

Lastly the access around the house was very limited. The tree save area for the cedar low marshy areas left us access path on the left side of only 12' this would require us to start in the rear yard and build our way out of the property.

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