Year: 2023

Location: Upper West Side, Manhattan

Scope: design, project management, woodwork, masonry, lighting, planting, irrigation

Custom architectural elements with unique design details transform the yard of an historic Upper West Side townhome, improving overall usability, expanding plantable space, and adding personality and style to complement the house.

A tiered ipe fence with mixed board sizes surrounds the yard on three sides, soaring above a back retaining wall to offer neighborly privacy as well as an elegant backdrop for plants and furniture; a generous brick planting bed, capped with bluestone treads, provides plenty of garden space and built-in seating; an integrated brick and bluestone barbecue offers expanded cooking, preparation, and storage space for an avid outdoor chef; a unique bluestone backsplash hung in the fence creates a focal point; and timeless copper sconces are beautiful and functional in equal measure, creating an inviting atmosphere long into the evening.

A dense planting of mostly pink and white flowering species includes a pair of mature oak leaf hydrangeas retained from the pre-transformation yard, together with viburnum, sarcoccoca (sweet box), helleborus, euphorbia ‘ascot rainbow’, aquilegia (columbine) and rubus calycinoides (creeping raspberry).