Collection by Victoria Field
Landscaping
"The nearly 100 year-old Victorian farmhouse clearly had good bones, but over the years unfortunate facelifts and additions had left it somewhat listless as well as thermally challenged in both summer and winter," says Arkin Tilt Architects. The design team sought to preserve the Victorian's charm while renovating the kitchen and dining room addition to have an open, Zen-inspired vibe with a garden connection.
A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.
Architectural designer Sebastian Mariscal and project manager Jeff Svitak created a house in Venice, California, for Michael and Tamami Sylvester. Known as Dwell Home Venice for its role as an exemplification of modern architecture, the house is an homage to indoor-outdoor living. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.













