Cutting-Edge Landscape Designers to Check Out

Some outdoor spaces are too innovative, creative and beautiful to simply be called a yard. Breathtaking gardens, entryways, courtyards and poolside retreats are visionary works by the winners of the 2017 American Society of Landscape Architects Awards.

Behind the scenes, designers are using engineering, architecture and construction feats to create beauty in urban settings, rural farms and oceanfront homes. So pause, reflect and find inspiration for your corner of the world.

Oceanfront settings are gorgeous in themselves, but landscape designer C. Stuart Moore elevated the already stunning surroundings of a new home near Santo Domingo, Chile.

For the green roof — one of two — CSM Design selected brighter plantings, such as mounds of Sesleria, blue fescue, sedums and echeverias. Aloe Africana strikes an attractive pose in the planters.

When a two-ton granite boulder was discovered on the site, it became a centerpiece of the entry garden with a circular cutout in the roof. Another relic — an old driftwood tree — and a mosaic of beach stone on the walls contribute to the organic nature in the contemporary Mediterranean residence. Ancient plant types, such as ferns, sedges and moss, add a textural carpet.

Contemporary art inspired the design for a private garden in suburban Detroit, Mich. For the modernist space, Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture created an outdoor gallery softened by plantings and dappled shade peeking through honey locust trees.

The San Francisco-based firm went a step further by creating sculptural elements that “evoke the powerful, emotional qualities of an art gallery in the garden — moving beyond the simple sculpture garden to a space with deeper, more lasting resonance.” The pathways are choreographed to lead people through the sculpture garden and courtyard.

In San Francisco, Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture used corten, stone and plantings for this stunning multi-layered garden. The views didn’t need to be created, with the 9,600-square-foot home already perched on a steep ravine over the Bay Bridge. Cochran created an entry stairway with corten steel walls, planes of glass and soft plantings. As an ASLA judge described it this way: “They made land out of air.”

Roche + Roche Landscape Architecture’s award-winning work in Sonoma, Calif., puts rural contemporary on display. Natural materials are balanced with clean geometry throughout the 17 acres with little level space. Instead of ripping out native oaks, Dave Roche preserved them within the gravel entry path and steps to the home.

Sculptural elements include a custom concrete fountain made of three pillars designed to mirror the height differences in the homeowner’s adult children. Think of that the next time you’re marking your children’s growth on a homemade chart on a door frame.

Plans by Reed Hilderbrand for a rescued New England farm with panoramic views veered toward the unexpected with its contemporary design. For example, one updated section of the 200-acre property features an infinity pool and lawn terraces meant for modern living, just outside the contemporary style, glass-filled home. The firm kept the mature beech, elm and sycamore trees and planted native red oak and tulip trees.