Front and rear gardens were created for this downtown property that stretches from the sweeping greenway streetscape to the deep ravine of the Humber River.

Maintaining the understated address to the street but hinting at the contemporary treatment of the house’s interior and rear, the front garden is layered with a sequence of limestone walls with built-in lights and perennial planting. The limestone walls reference the existing limestone stoop, but create an abstract, crisp, modern organization for the soft planting and existing grove of mature maple trees.

At the rear, an obsolete play structure was replaced with a swimming pool, pool-house addition, lounge areas, planting, and a new path to the existing belvedere over the ravine. The pool and patios recontextualize the existing raised patio into a multi-layered spatial sequence of lounge areas close to the house while leaving a long view as a foreground to bordering treed ravine. Custom tables and benches complement the new wood fencing and pool house.