Poe Avenue

After recovering from the feat of exterior renovations to their home, our client knew it was time to update their site and landscape to match their now-updated home. This site was an opportunity for a full overhaul. Using 3D illustrations, we were able to bring their vision to life on screen prior to ever breaking ground.

Our emphasis at Poe Avenue was providing increased privacy screening while still maintaining views of the valley below and beyond.

In the front, we created a theme of board formed concrete walls to compliment the house material while accenting the horizontality of its finished materials. Similarly, we planted joints in the hardscape and swaths of color blocked plants to help accent the linearity of the frontage.

This house never had a celebrated entry sequence, so we needed to create movement to invite guests from the sidewalk up to the front door. Because we are particularly adverse to using the driveway for primary means of pedestrian egress, we developed a separate series of stairs from the street to the house entry that aligns with the cor ten steel fountain. Due to their sculptural nature, we used dragon trees to punctuate the entry and play well within the deliberately restrained plant palette.

Find yourself the best seat in the house in the front fire pit niche, which was designed with views in mind. This seating area holds the corner of the house pad, and celebrates the setting sun with majestic views westerly overlooking the Valley’s city lights at night.

Around the back, stone paving and hardwood decking uplifted and unified the walkable surfaces throughout the space. The trapezoidal trellis structure was topped with glass to provide shelter without minimizing light into the home.

We renovated the swimming pool, adding height to the rear wall to deliver extra delineation to the upper sundeck beyond. An illuminated, curved seat wall meets the toe of the slope to expand the depth of the yard without using ominous wall height. Carving into the crook of the converging slopes, the outdoor kitchen and dining are strung with party lights overhead to give this “farm to table” experience a festive charm.

Plant materials compliment those in the front, and further blend with existing mature specimens that help screen views to neighboring homes. To filter and scale down the slope beyond, we introduced olive trees behind the wall which further articulated the concentric arc-like outward “ripples” from the pool. By using cor ten steel veggie planters, we were able to maximize the hillside’s utility.

Finally, we enclosed the space without blocking the distant views by creating a vertical steel picket fence without a top rail. Lines of the adjacent tall, upright cacti signal a living mirror of this gesture.