location:
Plymouth, Minnesota
 
project characteristics:
This was a blank canvas, new construction, when we began a master plan for the owners.  Their aesthetic ran to a geometric preference, in their architectural elements, and this space-making translated very well to a grid-form entry courtyard.  We designed a raised courtyard area for them, using a new wall stone, at the time; ‘Roman Pisa Stone’.  Our staggered landscape configuration was designed to correspond to the nooks and pockets of their Prairie-style front of the house.

 

On the upper part of the courtyard, we brought a broad, gridded entry walk through the gardens, under a dappled canopy of Honeylocust trees.  In front of the gardens walls, we skirted the entire courtyard in low, architectural, shrub plantings and and a counterpoint of
texture-filled naturalized perennials. 

In the fall, the ornamental

grasses and the foliage

combinations have been

truly traffic stoppers. 

We lit this courtyard with

custom landscape

lighting -- great in the
evening anytime, but
also a beautiful effect
during the winter.