GATES MILLS
“In reality, landscape architecture is outdoor sculpture, not to be looked at as an object, but designed to surround us in a pleasant sense of spatial relations.”
In a collaboration spanning twenty years, the owners of this home have worked with ADG to develop a richly detailed landscape. The topography at the front entrance to the hillside property was raised, and walls and piers were built to heighten the entry’s drama. The drive, which allows a glimpse of the valley as it winds past the garage court to the main entrance, is lined with antique granite cobble and winds to a brick and cobblestone entry court that was lowered to separate vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Its elaborate, intricate patterning is the constant foreground to the appealing seasonal entry gardens. The property’s gardens have a nine-month bloom time designed in a signature color palette and offer strong winter interest. Paths lead up to a formal rose garden within a box knot and down to an intimate overlook terrace perched on the edge of the [Chagrin River] valley.
