Joslyn Amato
Inspiration for a contemporary gravel landscaping in San Luis Obispo.

Photo: Sarah Greenman © 2013 Houzz
Traditional beige one-story exterior home idea in Austin

A view through the garden rooms, a gravel path leads through to the many spaces. The path is lined with cushwa brick outlining the spaces. Terra cotta containers are filled with boxwood and petunia; pachysandra and bugleweed ground cover fill the flanking and center beds. A cast iron bench offers an opportunity to sit and enjoy the space, with the fountain creating a pleasant sound. The wall is graced with two standard form lilacs. Photo Credit: Linda Oyama Bryan

This landscape is filled with tropical plants, bushes, flowers, and palms. The full landscape adds shade to the walkways and still allows the "full sun" plants to flourish. The garden beds have unique specimens placed throughout which add character to the landscape.

Klopf Architecture, Arterra Landscape Architects and Henry Calvert of Calvert Ventures Designed and built a new warm, modern, Eichler-inspired, open, indoor-outdoor home on a deeper-than-usual San Mateo Highlands property where an original Eichler house had burned to the ground. The owners wanted multi-generational living and larger spaces than the original home offered, but all parties agreed that the house should respect the neighborhood and blend in stylistically with the other Eichlers. At first the Klopf team considered re-using what little was left of the original home and expanding on it. But after discussions with the owner and builder, all parties agreed that the last few remaining elements of the house were not practical to re-use, so Klopf Architecture designed a new home that pushes the Eichler approach in new directions. One disadvantage of Eichler production homes is that the house designs were not optimized for each specific lot. A new custom home offered the team a chance to start over. In this case, a longer house that opens up sideways to the south fit the lot better than the original square-ish house that used to open to the rear (west). Accordingly, the Klopf team designed an L-shaped “bar” house with a large glass wall with large sliding glass doors that faces sideways instead of to the rear like a typical Eichler. This glass wall opens to a pool and landscaped yard designed by Arterra Landscape Architects. Driving by the house, one might assume at first glance it is an Eichler because of the horizontality, the overhanging flat roof eaves, the dark gray vertical siding, and orange solid panel front door, but the house is designed for the 21st Century and is not meant to be a “Likeler.” You won't see any posts and beams in this home. Instead, the ceiling decking is a western red cedar that covers over all the beams. Like Eichlers, this cedar runs continuously from inside to out, enhancing the indoor / outdoor feeling of the house, but unlike Eichlers it conceals a cavity for lighting, wiring, and insulation. Ceilings are higher, rooms are larger and more open, the master bathroom is light-filled and more generous, with a separate tub and shower and a separate toilet compartment, and there is plenty of storage. The garage even easily fits two of today's vehicles with room to spare. A massive 49-foot by 12-foot wall of glass and the continuity of materials from inside to outside enhance the inside-outside living concept, so the owners and their guests can flow freely from house to pool deck to BBQ to pool and back. During construction in the rough framing stage, Klopf thought the front of the house appeared too tall even though the house had looked right in the design renderings (probably because the house is uphill from the street). So Klopf Architecture paid the framer to change the roofline from how we had designed it to be lower along the front, allowing the home to blend in better with the neighborhood. One project goal was for people driving up the street to pass the home without immediately noticing there is an "imposter" on this lot, and making that change was essential to achieve that goal. This 2,606 square foot, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom Eichler-inspired new house is located in San Mateo in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Klopf Architecture Project Team: John Klopf, AIA, Klara Kevane Landscape Architect: Arterra Landscape Architects Contractor: Henry Calvert of Calvert Ventures Photography ©2016 Mariko Reed Location: San Mateo, CA Year completed: 2016

This landscape is filled with tropical plants, bushes, flowers, and palms. The full landscape adds shade to the walkways and still allows the "full sun" plants to flourish. The garden beds have unique specimens placed throughout which add character to the landscape.

Example of a large beach style backyard deck design in Chicago

Build out of the Meditation Hut next to the spa deck and gravel filled steps that lead into a recessed fire pit area. Photo by Ketti Kupper.
This is an example of a small asian drought-tolerant and partial sun backyard landscaping in Los Angeles with decking.

Scotch moss and pebbles surround a basalt dish rock. Juniper wood raised vegetable beds provide a bench for passersby to sit.
Photo of a traditional side yard water fountain landscape in Seattle.

This is an example of a mid-sized rustic front yard brick garden path in Wilmington.

Design ideas for a tropical landscaping in Hawaii.

In the past this house had been at the heart of a busy farm. The function of the property has long since changed but it yet remains someone’s home. The challenge is to retrofit existing farm buildings, and the surrounding landscape, to better reflect both the different lifestyle and needs of the present owners. At the back of the farmhouse slopes have been modified to accommodate terraces, gardens and pathways linking through them. View sheds have been emphasized to showcase the property and the landscape filled with four seasons of interest. The geometry of the hard-scaping (walls, stairs, and walkways) is softened by the addition of lush plant material selected for both textural and colour qualities (evergreen, flowering and foliage). This view includes Smooth Viburnum (Viburnum nudum ‘Winterthur’), Purple Smokebush (Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’), Mellow Yellow Spiraea (Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon’), and Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia).

Complete relandscape with new staircases fabricated from brick and bluestone to complement the colonial style home. New bluestone walkways and new plantings to fill the front landscape but also allow a full view of the front.

Patio - coastal concrete paver patio idea in Los Angeles with a fire pit and no cover

Celebrating Southern California's mild climate, this hill-top residence was enhanced with an a bubbling water feature, outdoor shower, custom fencing and a Mediterranean plant palette. The fence's design, with its slender vertical lines, draws the eye toward the site's lovely borrowed scenery. An outdoor shower, nestled into a corner of the yard, beckons the homeowners to bath in the open air. Photo by Martin Cox.

This landscape is filled with tropical plants, bushes, flowers, and palms. The full landscape adds shade to the walkways and still allows the "full sun" plants to flourish. The garden beds have unique specimens placed throughout which add character to the landscape.

Lush side yard planting using Date, bottle palms and foxtails to create a nice multi canopy space. This 5 Layer landscape will fill in nice creating tiers from 2ft to 22ft using all vertical material for limited space. Great way to use your side yard.

Mountain style outdoor patio shower photo in San Francisco with decking and no cover

This is an example of a small traditional full sun backyard brick landscaping in Other.