Caplow/Laviolette Garden

Description

When the Caplow/Laviolette family remodeled and expanded their mid-century ranch house in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, they realized that the outdoor spaces needed to be updated as well. In 2008, they hired the landscape design team of Ryan Gates and Joel Lichtenwalter of Grow Outdoor Design to create a setting that reflects the clean lines of the modern architecture of their remodeled house as well as paying tribute to the woodland feeling of the site which contains existing large conifers, jacarandas, and ancient camellias. The house is now approached through a series of large concrete pavers that are set within a Japanese-inspired garden of red maples, ferns, giant liriope, anemones, and a sculptural specimen of the Eastern redbud ‘Forest Pansy’. A large fabricated Corten metal panel acts as both a privacy screen for one of the children’s bedroom as well as a garden sculpture. The backyard garden features a winding decomposed granite path around the perimeter of the property passing a relaxing fire pit area, vegetable garden with espaliered apple and fig trees, and lush planting beds of camellias, redbuds, ceanothus, and other plants creating a tapestry of color and texture.