Selected Past Projects

(click on thumbnails for larger images)

RESIDENTIAL:

HORSE COUNTRY RESIDENCE, Somerset County, NJ

For their new home set into former agricultural land about an hour from New York City, the clients wanted both house and landscape to be formal and elegant. The property will be used both for family living and for extensive entertaining. Landscape spaces include a formal entry court, perennial borders, parterre gardens, a guest house and associated gardens, and a lawn with geometrically arranged topiaries. (Project designed at Deborah Nevins & Associates. Architect: Allan Greenberg Architect)

MAS FLEURI, Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, France

The Mas Fleuri site is an exceptionally beautiful setting on the border of the Mediterranean Sea. The existing villa on the property is outdated and run-down; the new villa is set further back on the property to maximize the yard on the sea-side. A lap pool and large lawn with a terrace and lush plantings create an elegant setting for family life as well as for entertaining. Municipal officials in the French Riviera assiduously protect what they see as their endangered patrimony; because of this they required that all existing trees be protected or transplanted on site and that additional Aleppo Pines be added to screen the new villa from the sea and air. Over twenty ancient olive trees will be transplanted in the new design; two large pines will be protected and several more added to the site. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

RESIDENCE ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD, Chilmark, MA

This vacation residence on a bluff overlooking the ocean includes a main house, guest house, and garage, all linked by landscape that emphasizes the native species of the island. The house site is very private, surrounded by dense natural woodland; the site itself included several beautiful oaks that the project was careful to preserve. (Project designed at Deborah Nevins & Associates. Architect: Ferguson Shamamian)

RESIDENCE FOR ART COLLECTORS, Minneapolis, MN

The clients are avid collectors of modern art, and they wanted the design of their new home to both accommodate and reflect this interest. The design had to create spaces for the clients to display their sculpture, and it had to be artistic in its own right. Landforms in front of the house roll down the hillside from the street; the back terraces are planar as a counterpoint and to emphasize the view to the lake beyond. (Project designed at Hargreaves Associates. Architect: Vincent James Architects)

HORSE FARM AND RESIDENCE, Dutchess County, New York

The clients requested an elegant and restrained landscape to anchor their new stone house set in the midst of a working horse farm. A walled motor court is framed on one side by the house and on the other by a barn that contains garages and a guest apartment. A boxwood garden creates an intimate space at the front door. The pool terrace is enclosed with a hedge for privacy; the pool itself is surrounded by turf. A simple lawn terrace on the back of the house provides views out to the paddocks. (Project designed at Deborah Nevins & Associates. Architect: G.P. Schafer Architect)

RIVERDALE RESIDENCES, The Bronx, NY

Situated on the point of highest elevation in the city of New York, the Riverdale Residences have a spectacular and dramatic site. The houses, each of which is designed in a different architectural style, are carefully sited to take advantage of views as well as to work with the rocky, steep terrain. The landscape design for each house incorporates swimming pool, spa, entertaining terraces, and gardens; the style of each landscape is individual to reflect the character of the house, but all make use of native or naturalized plant and hardscape materials to ensure that these new houses fit seamlessly into the established neighborhood. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

RESIDENCE IN PALM BEACH, Palm Beach, FL

This property in Palm Beach is located on prime real estate, with frontages both on the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay. The house is large and formal, intended for family living but also for major entertaining. The gardens are conceived in a similar way to the house: the client requested a series of exterior rooms in which to entertain and to display art. Formally clipped green vegetation and a minimum of flowers create an elegant backdrop for small or large gatherings. Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

GENTLEMAN’S FARM, West Cape May, NJ

Located on a site surrounded by the wetlands that characterize this part of south-coastal New Jersey, this residential property includes both a main residence as well as a series of outbuildings to support small-scale agricultural production. Spaces around the house include a walled cutting garden / vegetable garden with a greenhouse, swimming pool and pergola, formal motor court, service court, and orchard with a small folly as a “found” destination buried within. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

RESORT / HOTEL:

KAPLANKAYA SUSTAINABLE RESORT, Bodrum, Turkey

This project includes two “neighborhoods” within a sustainable resort community occupying a spectacular site on the southwestern coast of Turkey. Houses are sited to nestle within the natural, hilly topography, echoing development patterns in nearby villages. Streets climb obliquely to cross-cross the neighborhoods. Neighborhood clubhouses and recreational centers are sited to take maximum advantage of the panoramic views of the Aegean Ocean. Both sites are edged with lushly vegetated natural ravines that conduct storm water as well as accommodate footpaths from the town centers to sheltered beaches on the coast.(Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

SILO RIDGE GOLF RESORT, Millbrook, New York

A group of New York City hedge-fund managers formed an organization to develop a premier golf-resort property in Dutchess County, New York. The property was intended to include a world-class golf course in addition to a five-star hotel and a variety of residential properties. Set in scenic New York horse country, the development needed to be sensitively designed in order not to impact views of the surrounding neighbors. All buildings are nestled into the hilly topography so they unobtrusively blend with their surroundings. In addition, the designers worked in conjunction with the Audubon Society to ensure that the development maintained habitat for local wildlife populations. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

CHIMBULAK SKI RESORT, Almaty, Kazakhstan

This new ski resort in the Tien Shen mountain range to the south of Almaty will host the 2011 Asian Games. Built on the site of an existing Soviet-era ski facility, this new resort will attract visitors from around the world. Site elements include a large Village Square with an expressive, organic stair that leads up to a Village Walk. Lined with residential buildings with retail on the base, the Walk’s centerpiece is a sinuous rill of running water. A hotel anchors the east end of the Walk, while a skier-service building and Skier’s Plaza anchor the west. The resort will boast spectacular views south to the mountains and north to Almaty. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL AND RESIDENCES, Almaty, Kazakhstan

This project includes a Ritz-Carlton hotel as well as four branded apartment buildings in the city of Almaty, the most developed city in Kazakhstan. With the end of the Soviet era, Almaty is attempting to raise the standard of its architecture and city infrastructure to western standards by hiring American and European designers. The project was particularly complex in its relationships to the surrounding streets and residential properties. Landscape features include a new streetscape design for the major artery through Almaty, formal motor courts, café and roof terraces, and an upgraded edge between the property and the adjacent residential development. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

INSTITUTIONAL:

SIGMA SIGMA AMPHITHEATER AND CAMPUS GREEN, University of Cincinnati, OH

These adjacent projects at the University of Cincinnati were designed together, although Sigma Sigma Amphitheater was funded and built first (late 1990s). Sigma Sigma creates a non-traditional sense of spatial enclosure by warping the expected form of the amphitheater and surrounding it with “iceberg” landforms that also serve as overflow seating. The planting plan is minimal; rows of trees help to define the corridors of movement and to frame the amphitheater. Campus Green takes over land that was formerly an asphalt parking lot and reclaims it for open space, an arboretum, and pedestrian use. The design takes inspiration from a stream bed that formerly flowed through the site. It includes three strands of pathway that are “braided” together, landforms that are also “braided,” and a system of surface drainage runnels that recalls the natural drainage system of the site. (Project designed at Hargreaves Associates.)

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MISSION BAY, San Francisco, CA

This project includes Phase I development for the new 43-acre UCSF life-sciences campus. The site is an industrial brownfield composed of fill material over mud; all of the buildings are built on piles, and the open spaces were surcharged for a period of months before construction in order to minimize differential settlement. The landscape plan includes a combination of temporary and permanent conditions. Temporary conditions include large surface-parking lots which will later become building sites. Permanent elements include planted pedestrian corridors that build on the existing city grid, plazas related to each of the three Phase I buildings, and a city-block-sized Green, which forms the open space heart of the campus. The Green accommodates informal athletics and also serves as an informal amphitheater, both for the campus itself as well as for the surrounding neighborhoods. A large grassy knoll and an open meadow are set within a planting of pine trees. Within the pines are a number of smaller seating areas, each of which has a distinct character but is tied to the overall composition with similar materials including stone walls and turf. The site has been designed so that donor-funded elements, such as a linear water feature, can be layered into the design. (Project designed at Peter Walker and Partners. Building architects: Ricardo Legorreta Arquitectos, Cesar Pelli Associates, Smith Group Architects/ZGF.)

BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE, New York, NY

This new library and classroom building finishes one side of an important campus quad that was part of the original Stanford White master plan for the campus. The new design for the formerly ill-defined quad creates a simple oval defined by a path around the perimeter and crossed by a straight path through the middle. The edges of the oval are reinforced with a planting of native trees that provide blooms in the spring, shade in the summer, and brilliant color in the fall.(Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

HANCOCK CENTER, MARIST COLLEGE, Poughkeepsie, NY

This new computer-science and mathematics building is set on a steep site overlooking the Hudson River. The landscape design preserves the beautiful rock outcroppings that are the distinctive characteristic of the site, while creating a sheltered courtyard in the “L” of the building’s two wings. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL SCHEMATIC DESIGN, Cambridge, MA

For this new student center and classroom building on a prominent corner on the Harvard Law School Campus, the client requested a second-level roof terrace as well as connective elements around the building at ground level. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

CORPORATE:

NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICALS WORLD HEADQUARTERS, Basel, Switzerland

Novartis’s 51-acre flagship campus adjacent to the Rhine River in Basel has historically been an industrial and manufacturing site, but is quickly evolving into a primarily research and administration facility. In 1999 the company held an international competition to select landscape architects to effect this evolution. The master plan helps to organize the overall site and to create a series of public open spaces that will give employees places to gather as well as creating a new image for the campus, shifting the use from primarily vehicular to primarily pedestrian. The first component of the master plan to be implemented is a graphically strong courtyard garden for the main administrative building; other elements are envisioned to be implemented over the next ten to twenty years. (Project designed at Peter Walker and Partners. Architects: Gensler London.)

73 DOCK STREET, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

To be developed on the site of an underused wharf adjacent to uptown Saint John, this new sustainably designed corporate headquarters will also accommodate a cruise ship terminal, waterside Harbor passage, constructed wetland gardens, restored natural coastline, and major amphitheater and recreational spaces for use by the public. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS, Emeryville, CA

This new building for the renowned computer animation studio was completed about ten years ago. Set on a 20-acre site which had been home to a Del Monte plant, the building is conceived of as a reinterpretation of the factory for the 21st century. The landscape is park-like yet productive; employees and visitors enter through a working apple orchard and walk to the front door on a path flanked by a linear garden. The site incorporates other amenities for the primarily youthful workforce including playing fields, a pool, jogging trails, and a basketball court. A grass-terraced amphitheater serves as a gathering place for company events, but can also be used casually by individuals or small groups. Rolling, tree-planted berms delineate a perimeter pathway system and buffer the site from the street. Future building sites are open play fields in Phase I, and a large surface-parking lot is designed to accommodate increments of future structured parking which will come online as the site is built out. (Project designed at Peter Walker and Partners. Architect: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson)

PRIVATE OFFICE ROOF TERRACE, New York, NY

A ramshackle rooftop shed has been rehabilitated as a book-lined office. The roof terrace is a deck made of ipe (a sustainably farmed tropical hardwood) with simple, geometric planters containing bamboo and yew. The bamboo screens a blank wall, while the yew provides a low, green foreground to the spectacular Manhattan skyline. (Project designed at Robert A.M. Stern Architects)

PEOPLESOFT HEADQUARTERS, Pleasanton, CA

This new headquarters complex for a growing technology company included two office buildings and a Data Center. Landscape elements included a tree-planted entry drive, entry plaza with large Chinese elms, a series of paths through pine-planted pyramid-shaped berms, and a circular lawn defined by a triple row of Cypress trees. (Project designed at Peter Walker and Partners. Architect: Gensler)