PROJECT SUMMARY: Residential Landscaping Alexandria and Arlington, VA

A Villa Retreat with Water Conservation in Mind

The client was building a beautiful Mediterranean style home on a tear-down lot in Alexandria, VA.  They wanted to be sensitive and respectful to the neighborhood but really they wanted a design that would be crisp and modern and at the same time complement the Mediterranean style of the new house with its arched windows, attached loggias, authentic stucco exterior and tile roof.  In the front the resulting design is linear and geometric but uses familiar indigenous materials; a simple grid pattern front walkway is generous in scale and accented by cobblestone detailing. This pattern is repeated "in green" with a border on the parking court that is comprised of squares of local flagstone alternating with squares of low growing Mondo Grass, Ophiopogon japonicus nana.  The front yard is devoted to a Parking Court with a floor of fine textured river rock edged in cobblestones.  A simple classic Taxus hedge softens the view of the parked cars from the street and creates a courtyard atmosphere but is low enough that the architecture of the new home can still be appreciated from the street.  The planting is a simple green tapestry of Mondo grass, Holly and Ostrich Ferns and Robb's Euphorbia and a series of three generously scaled urns was added to display seasonal color.   In the back there is more strong geometry but here it is more playful in tone and accented with brightly covered flowers loosely organized into monochromatic schemes. 

The design was carefully created to maximize the use of the space while maintaining strong geometric shapes and complementing the scale and architecture of the rear facade. Terraced levels maximize usable space and enabled us to integrate an outdoor kitchen, a generous lawn panel with a gas fueled fire pit, a pool area with lots of overflow patio space and a service driveway that provides access to an existing garage which has been renovated to complement the house architecture and do double duty as a pool house.  The owner was committed to being environmentally responsible in all new construction and this played out perfectly with our goals of building sustainable projects.  The driveways are constructed using a “gravel pave” system of river stone that maintains them as porous surfaces, a large underground holding tank is located beneath the lawn panel; it collects all the downspout water and uses it for the drip irrigation that is installed throughout the landscaping and rain barrels on the back of the garage provide water for supplemental hand-watering in addition to controlling the storm water runoff.