Garden Art Group

CONCRETE COLUMNS IN PALO ALTO

First on the list of objectives for this garden was creating a presence for this house. It was the most unassuming house on its block, directly across from the beautiful and historic Gamble Garden. The original landscape entirely hid the house from the street, and guests often drove right past, unable to locate the home they knew was there but couldn’t see. Equally counterproductive, some overly ambitious Podocarpus shrubs had grown into trees, and had destroyed the driveway. Working with San Francisco architect Paul Rotter, we gave the house a new face. Guests now enter from the street, rather than the driveway, and pass through a columned entry terrace that leads to the front door. At both sides new arbors give the house the heft that it had previously lacked. In back we added a swim-in-place exercise pool, a stucco privacy wall with raised planters, and a concrete columned arbor for the new outdoor kitchen. We have been told that classes from the Gamble Garden now stop by to admire our work.