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Designing Small Spaces08-26-03 | 16
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Photography by William Britton

The San Francisco bay area does not lack drama; there are the staggering hills, of course, giving glimpse at the top to blue water views, sailboats and bridges, expanses of nature in city park blocks, downtown spires and those houses, row after row, whole neighborhoods of varied and ornate Victorians and Edwardian stacked up and down the hillsides as if each depends upon the others to support their impossible claim on the landscape.

It is the drama often unseen to the pedestrian eye, however, that draws David Wollney of the landscape architecture firm Paesaggio. "What you see with each of these city blocks is a square of houses with mostly hardscape in front. But if you could get the birdseye view you'd see that there is a large amount of open space behind the homes that has been sectioned into these little plots. Most of the time you can't see these yards from the street, so they become a bit mysterious, a private retreat from city life."

For fifteen years David has been quietly working his craft in these small gardens, staking a claim of his own. "It is an honor, really, to have access to these hidden gardens. The first time I view a site I'm usually going through the house or some narrow side alley with no idea what I'll find. It might be an old fence or a steep hill or a great stone wall."

It is his appreciation for the urban experience which drives David's design process. "The size of these gardens does not limit the ability to create something spacious and inviting," he claims. "I don't set out thinking, oh, I have this small space and how can I make it look big? Instead I envision the usability of the site, how a person might better enjoy being there, how I can use existing elements to compliment the design." In these gardens, the sound of falling water, a series of descending terraces or the glimpse of a bench sitting nearly hidden by the arch of a tree branch conveys that sense of expansion one absorbs while out in nature. Everything that goes in has a purpose, is of the right proportion and creates visually and spatially interesting aspects which draw people further into the garden.

One project, located in the St. Francis Wood area of the city, illustrates David's use of several of these techniques. The design was initiated when a huge Monterey cypress on the site fell, leaving the yard exposed to a previously hidden apartment complex. The client's initial concerns were for quick-fix privacy and play areas for their young daughter. The design has the feel of a mini-park suited to both children and adults with a grassy hillside, a playhouse, a rhododendron trail, a colorful fountain, a bench for reflecting, a grove of beech trees and areas of stone paving. Each element leads naturally into another, none feeling overly-dominant nor too retiring. One must meander a bit in order to explore the different areas.

"You can't really see everything from one vantage point," explains David. The only garden access is from the upper deck of the house which leads to the paved area around the fountain. A path leads from there to a set of flagstone steps and up to the 'cottage and enchanted forest' that was put in for the little girl. Jack and Jill's grass hill slopes down from there.

The fountain creates a focal point for the garden which further emphasizes the playfulness of the yard. Small Mexican glass mosaics used in brightly hued shades of aqua, green, red and blue were placed imperfectly on the column. Four larger tiles, featuring aquatic motifs of fishermen and mermaids, are inset and herald from Italy via the Biordi Arts Store located in the North Beach district of San Francisco. The wide Arizona sandstone coping allows for barefoot balancing, sitting and toe dipping and the pale green basin cobbles are large enough create a satisfying plunk when tossed into the water.
To create this fountain, small Mexican glass mosaics in brightly hued shades of aqua, green, red and blue were placed imperfectly on the column. Four larger tiles, featuring aquatic motifs of fishermen and mermaids, are inset and look like they came straight from Italy.

"I call the fountain bract and flower bud," says David, "but the clients named it after their daughter because she loves to play there." The view of the fountain from above draws you outside for a closer look at it's artistry, yet does not overshadow the other elements of the yard. The broken paving pattern creates a sense of spaciousness and eases the adjoining areas into awareness.

The wide Arizona sandstone coping allows for barefoot balancing, sitting and toe dipping.

The planting is rather simple with blue star creeper planted between the stones on the patio, campanula at the steps, daffodils for the open hillside areas, beech trees for quick privacy on the upper slope of the yard, twin red leaf Japanese maples on either side of the bench and a rhododendron patch behind it.

"This yard has a lot of open space, so I didn't want to overdo the planting," David says. "It keeps it feeling airy, while still providing the necessary screening and shade as well as vertical variation."

To revamp the narrow passageway between two homes, David Wollney created a long brick 'hallway' planted on either side with hydrangea.

David used a different approach for clients who love outdoor entertaining, yet didn't have time for much maintenance. They needed to revamp the narrow passageway between their home and the neighbor's and they wanted a patio. David created a long brick 'hallway' planted on either side with hydrangea for the side entry. "It immediately looks so inviting," he says, "and conveys that sense of mystery I was talking about. What's going to be at the end of the passage? It looks like it goes on forever and you absolutely get no hint of the garden beyond."
This large patio, which extends nearly to the edges of the 850 square foot yard, is perfect for clients who love outdoor entertaining but don't have time for much maintenance. The circular pattern of the brick radiates out from a cut brick center the size of a skipping stone, making the patio look enormous.

Contrasting with the narrow brick side path, David designed a large patio which extends nearly to the edges of the 850 square foot yard. The circular pattern of the brick, which he calls the 'urban pond' does indeed have a ripple effect; it radiates out from a cut brick center the size of a skipping stone and makes the patio look enormous.

"Again, you want other elements to draw your attention," David says. An arbor on one side of the patio is beautifully designed with elegant columns and curved cuts on the cross-members. Planter boxes form a 'bank around the pond' and provide a change in the vertical elevation. They are just the right height to provide additional seating, yet not so high as to encroach upon the patio.

"In this case I've created one large room, perfect for the way these clients use their garden," says David. It feels large enough for a party, yet the arbor, planting, night lighting and the beautiful allee entry make it romantic and intimate as well.

One of David's favorite projects happens to be a rare find in San Francisco; a usable front yard. The home borders the Presido, a vast nature preserve that runs along the bay. "The avenues are usually open to the Presidio," David says, "but this one was walled in and made into two front yards." The clients called David to solve an access problem. They had French doors leading to the garden from the living room with no way to descend the five foot drop.
The clients of this Mediterranean style home called David to solve an access problem. They had French doors leading to the garden from their living room with no way to descend the five foot drop. To create a visual progression from the upper, middle and lower terraces, David used different paving patterns. The upper terrace is paved in smaller Italian marble tiles set in a pattern to imitate the Persian carpets collected by the owners. The middle and lower terraces are done in a white botticino marble from Italy, broken into a flagstone pattern.

The garden was done in an English style, yet the home and the shape of the yard all had more of a Mediterranean influence, so David set about designing a modified cloister garden.

"Obviously we needed an upper terrace in order to get out to the garden, and it needed to be just the right size to provide comfortable seating, but I wanted people moving beyond that first point, both visually and physically."
The Landscape Architect created a sense of expectation by developing numerous enchanted nooks in this 1200 square foot garden. Sculptures and pots of various sizes were randomly used throughout the outdoor space. Iron railings and gates were hand-crafted by a blacksmith in Northern California.

The upper terrace is paved in smaller Italian marble tiles of faded white, black and pink, set in a pattern to imitate the Persian carpets collected by the clients. The middle and lower terraces are done in white botticino marble from Italy, broken into a flagstone pattern. The middle terrace is solidly paved while the ground level of the garden features a broken pattern bisected by a rectangular stone cross.

This door, which is located under the terrace, has the look of a miniature castle portal. Children could see this door as the entrance to their own Secret Garden.

"The different paving patterns create a visual progression from the smaller upper terrace to the largest area below," says David. "The broken paving expands that area and was also used as a metaphorical reference to the fact that this garden broke apart the street that used to lead directly into the Presidio." David also continued the line of street trees to draw the eye straight out to a eucalyptus forest in the Presidio. An existing kumquat tree on axis with the street trees was nursed back to health and an olive tree was added to fill in the missing section. To get a tree of the correct shape and scale, David brought one in on a trailer from a forty year old olive grove in San Diego. "It had to be placed with a crane," he says, laughing, "so all the neighborhood kids were out to watch."

By locating this fountain along the garden wall, David was able to maximize patio space and break up the linear quality of this long and narrow garden. The arched brick backdrop for the fountain, as well as the pilaster entry posts provides a nice visual break from the horizontal planes of the garden. Cut bluestone done in an ashlar pattern makes up the patio paving.

There are many discoveries in this 1200 square foot space. David made use of the angles found in the garden to create enchanting nooks. There's a bench on the middle terrace nearly obscured by large-leaf calla lilies and azaleas, another under the olive tree and a third on the landing that leads into the garden. Iron railings and gates were hand-crafted by a blacksmith in Northern California. A door under the upper terrace has the look of an miniature castle portal. Sculpture surprises on a wall here and there, pots of various shapes and sizes proliferate. The planting is lush Mediterranean with Italian cypress, huge, leafy hydrangea, bougainevillea, potted geraniums, and nasturtiums. The fountain at the lower level was custom designed and built and serves as a terminus for the street and the garden.
The entry gate and front door railings were custom designed in hammered iron, painted a light green and interwoven with a grapeleaf pattern.

"This garden was designed for a full day experience," says David. "The sun goes from one terrace to the next throughout the day, so the clients like to have coffee in the morning on the upper terrace, then there's reading during the day on the middle terrace and when I've been here for evening parties people congregate at the fountain. When it's lit up and night is coming on and people are sipping a glass of wine, that's just perfect."

David encountered a similar space in Oakland, a front yard bordering the street. The clients assumed that the size of the area, 800 square feet, would relegate the area to driveway status. David immediately sketched a few designs showing them the potential to create a garden suitable for entertaining, personal enjoyment and also to provide visual enhancement from the house where bedroom and dining room windows overlook the area.

"This garden is somewhat long and narrow," says David, "so I had to maximize patio space and break up the linear quality a bit."

The location of the fountain serves both of these purposes. Placing it along the garden wall allows for plenty of seating area in front while the semicircular pattern of the basin softens the straight lines of the surrounding wall and the house. The arched brick backdrop for the fountain, as well as the pilaster entry posts provides a nice visual break from the horizontal planes of the garden. The wall itself creates a sense of privacy, limiting the view to the street while seated, yet leaving a sense of openness to the outside street trees and surrounding neighborhood. Brick stairs and a landing leading to the front door come next in the progression, mimicking the shape of the fountain basin and creating a gentle switch back curve between the two forms.

Cut bluestone done in an ashlar pattern makes up the patio paving. "The size of the stone and the paving pattern can make a big difference in terms of how big the space feels," says David. The medium-sized dimension of the stones and the variety in the paving pattern enlarges the area rather then emphasizing it's narrowness.

There are interesting details here as well. The fountain houses a lion as its centerpiece that the clients named 'Sir Rory.' "He's become quite the personality of the garden," David says. The entry gate and front door railing were custom designed in hammered iron, painted a light green and interwoven with a grape leaf pattern. Benches and urns add elegance and plantings of roses, lavendar, Boston Ivy, sage and courtyard sized Japanese maples provide a softening touch to the overall hardscape of the garden.

David once again included a fountain within the patio without limiting usable space. The understated rectangular basin contrasts with the curve of the patio.

A more typical type of back yard in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco runs straight back from the house and is hidden from the street. It also features one of those unusual discoveries. "The first thing that struck me was the natural rock outcropping at the back of the property line," says David. "I wanted to incorporate that into the design rather than close in the yard by trying to screen it."

He accomplished this by recalling the native rock in the materials chosen for the garden wall separating the upper and middle terrace levels and by using it to edge the lower level patio wall that also embraces a spring-like fountain. Again, he included the fountain within the patio without limiting usable space. It is tucked discreetly against the back of a curving wall which leads to the middle terrace.

This upper terrace wall runs straight across the yard, broken at one side by a set of convex, then concave semicircular steps.
"I did a lot with forms here," David says. The semicircular patio is meant to blend with the upper deck, creating one large entertaining area. The understated rectangular fountain basin contrasts with the curve of the patio, calling attention without breaking the gentle melding of the wall with the larger middle lawn terrace. An upper terrace wall runs straight across the yard, broken at one side by a set of convex, then concave semicircular steps.

The clients, natives of England, put in a nostalgic bid for an English garden planting pallette. Mexican sage provides the foreground for the upper terrace wall, rudbeckia borders the yard in side planter beds, jasmine drapes over the deck railing and pots of lavendar sit upon stone walls.

Having a view of the Bay immediately increases the sense of space within this 800 square foot garden. A sloped section of the yard was leveled by the construction of a retaining wall, creating a large rectangular patio area. He maintained the feeling of openness by using lattice work on the top of the fence and by leaving one of the arbor panels open to the bay.

Finally, there are those fortunate few who have the view. "Having a view immediately increases that sense of space within a garden," says David. One client had an 800 square foot yard, half of which was unusably sloped. "But you could look right out at the bay, so we had plenty to work with right there."

The design called for the sloped section of the yard to be leveled by the construction of a retaining wall, creating a large rectangular patio area. "We had to take out a lot of branchy, full grown trees, so I wanted to put back a bit of the feeling of those missing timbers," explains David. He designed a stair-stepping arbor surround that used large beams and kept the detailing on the cross members simple. He maintained the feeling of openness by using lattice work on the top of the fence and by leaving one of the arbor panels open to the bay. "I just framed the view," he says, smiling.

Many full grown, leafy trees needed to be removed in order to construct the patio. To put back a bit of the feeling of the missing timbers, David created a stair stepping arbor with simple cross members.

The clients love to garden, but didn't have much extra time, so David edged the patio with planter boxes just the right height for comfortable cultivating. To ease the boxiness of the garden space, David put in a curved edge fountain beneath the picture frame arbor and designed a three tier set of semi-circular stairs as the entry point from the house.

"There is a certain time of year, during the summer solstice when the sun sets over the water right between these arbor posts," says David. "Simple, really, when you have that to work with."

That appears to be the hallmark of a Paesaggio garden; each element appears as if it was meant to be just that way, each garden simply done. LASN

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