Woodland Retreat

An extensive house addition that included a shift in the garage’s orientation revealed previously ignored areas of the property’s surrounding mature mix-softwood woodland.  Unrealized landscape development potentials were presented by new interior rooms which extended themselves to the immediate and the landscape beyond. HMWhite’s master plan vision for this 4 acre property introduced a new landscape framework that stitched back the disconnected and fragmented. A network of fieldstone retaining walls, steps and bluestone garden paths established a 360 degree fluid mobility around the residence and within new landscape experiences that provided multiple connections to the swimming pool terraces and within woodland trails and secret woodland hideaways.  

The site’s relentless sloping condition required artful and sensitive carving to expand usable areas and reveal the expansive woodland preserve. Through strategic editing and framing of views, each new landscape intervention made visual and physical connections to the boundless woodland beyond – exposing its inherent beauty and increasing the property’s sense of space tenfold. Each new landscape design element was proportional scaled to the mature woodland where the meeting of “old” and “new” are indistinguishable.