Landscape Architect Articles

Hudson River Valley Retreat01-02-07 | News

Hudson River Valley Retreat by Stephen Kelly, regional editor

The setting sun highlights a landscape of ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The LaurelRock Co., Dickson DeMarche Landscape Architects, design/builders with facilities in Georgetown and Bethel, Conn., is a team of landscape architects, landscape designers, horticulturists and skilled crews headed by Dickson DeMarche, FASLA. Featured here is their challenging design (they also installed it) for a 3.7-acre weekend retreat in Garrison, N.Y. overlooking the Hudson River Valley near West Point. We also look at a number of landscape elements, site amenities, if you like, designed by LaurelRock for other residences that enhance those properties.

Garrison is on the eastern bank of the Hudson River and West Point?EUR??,,????'?????<

The conceptual plan for the Garrison home shows the remaining woods where a septic field and basketball half-court were place after excavating the garage.

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The towns along the river evoke a rich history: Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow. George Washington moved his headquarters to Newburgh, just north of Garrison, in 1782, where he remained until the Revolutionary War ended in Sep. 1783.

Garrison is in Putnam County, about 41 miles as the bird flies from Manhattan. It was an important ferry crossing site until construction of the Bear Mountain Bridge. For trivia buffs, Garrison was the filming location for the Acadamy award winning 1969 movie ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The client wanted the pool in close proximity to the house?EUR??,,????'?????<

The Garrison Property?EUR??,,????'?????<

Dickson DeMarche, FASLA, assessed the home?EUR??,,????'?????<

The client?EUR??,,????'?????<

Incorporate a new guest house/garage building, a large porch addition and a new swimming pool and spa.

Remove a two-car garage building located adjacent to the house along with the associated driveway.

Create a new driveway to service the house entrance and the new garage.

Accommodate the need for two new septic fields.

Take maximum advantage of the spectacular views of the river and valley.

The steep terrain below the new porch became cascading pools and terraces, created via blasting, boulder rip-rap and stone retaining walls. Water springs from under an existing boulder to flow into the spa where it overflows to fall 4-5 feet into the swimming pool, then overflows between ledge rock to a reservoir where it is pumped back to the spa. The paving and pool coping is Spruce Mountain schist from Skyline Quarry, Stafford Springs, Conn. This granite schist derives from the hills of northern Connecticut. A Young Naturalist award winner, age 13, once described N.Y. granite schist ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Design Challenges

The design challenges were to:

Complement the home?EUR??,,????'?????<

Balance the effect of the new structures (guest house and garage) and the landscape, so that they co-existed without one dominating.

Minimize paving, with the hard surfaces being primarily those of the buildings and the exposed ledge.

Allow a natural contouring of the land throughout the site.

Orient major views from the buildings and outdoor living areas toward the view of the river valley.

Design a pool in close proximity to the house?EUR??,,????'?????<

Strive for a feeling of peace and contentment.

The stone pathways and boulders are the native stone from the site and nearby New York and Pennsylvania. The prevalent ledge rock on site is gneiss, a coarse-grained, imperfectly layered, metamorphic rock with alternating light and dark bands of differing minerals. The light bands are generally quartz and feldspar, with hornblende, biotite mica, garnet or graphite composing the dark bands. The flora here is a river birch (?EUR??,,????'?????<

The Execution

The guest house, built atop the new garage to conserve space and create more view, was sited back from the main house at the base of the hills on the east side of the narrow plateau, explains Dickson DeMarche. Rock blasted from the building and pool excavation went to create a rocky slope around the new garage that blending well with the surrounding slopes.

The garage was situated closer to the entrance of the property, allowing removal of the driveway from the center of the property. The driveway servicing the main entrance to the house was modified into a loop to reduce the width of paving and pulled away from the house to allow space for plantings to visually soften the approach. The guest parking was placed on the side of the loop away from the house, again to reduce contiguous expanses of hard surfaces.

The main house entry shows a defined entry walk with plantings of ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The steep terrain below the new porch became cascading pools and terraces, created via blasting, boulder rip-rap and stone retaining walls. Water springs from under an existing boulder to flow into the spa where it overflows to fall four to five feet into the swimming pool, then overflows between rocks to a reservoir where it is pumped back to the spa. The location of the outfall from the pool makes it appear the water is flowing from the spa and pool down to the river, a feeling enhanced by forcing the water between large rocks set on the bond beam of the pool, creating a stream-width ?EUR??,,????'?????<

A large amount of fill was required for the septic fields. This imported fill was shaped into sloped clearings, envisioned as ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Dickson DeMarche, FASLA (right) on the night of Oct. 8, 2005 just moments before being inducted into the 2005 Class of Fellows in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for service to the profession. Vincent McDermott, FASLA (left) was the sponsor accompanying him.
Photo by Stephen Kelly, LASN

Native species predominate on the perimeter of the site, with more of an ornamental palette closer to the buildings and outdoor living areas. The pool area plants had to be attractive yet tough enough to withstand direct sun in the summer and the cold winds of winter. The plants chosen were cotoneaster and juniperus evergreen shrub species; varieties of clethra, deutzia and spiraea deciduous shrubs; meidiland and carefree delight roses; dwarf fountain grass; sedum, coreopsis and nepeta perennials; and vinca and ajuga groundcovers.

RIGHT: The view of the Hudson River Valley from pool side. The flora is spirea (?EUR??,,????'?????<

Hudson River Valley Retreat

Firm: The LaurelRock Co., Dickson DeMarche Landscape Architects, design/buildProjects: Hudson Valley retreat, Garrison, N.Y., plus the firm?EUR??,,????'?????<

Web presence: laurelrock.com

About the company:

In 1975, Dickson DeMarche, current LaurelRock Co. CEO and co-owner, founded Dickson DeMarche Landscape Architects (DDLA) in Westport, Conn. In 1984, DDLA added a construction management division. In 1993, Dickson and his son, Burt, current president and co-owner, founded The LaurelRock Co.

LaurelRock was recognized for three residential landscape projects at the Professional Landscape Network?EUR??,,????'?????<

The LaurelRock Co. cites the Garrison project as a model of teamwork between the owners, the architect (Peter Smith AIA, Newburgh, N.Y.) and the landscape architect.

Landscape Elements of LaurelRock Co.

Adding various built landscape elements to a residential property can certainly change its look and feel, whether it?EUR??,,????'?????<

The final images in this feature are some landscape elements created by the LaurelRock Co. for other properties other than the featured Garrison home. We think you?EUR??,,????'?????<

Providing a definition of the overhead plane makes this a more inviting outdoor living area,?EUR??,,????'?????<

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