Wolf Lighthall is a new landscape architecture and planning firm whose principals, Tobias Wolf and Deborah Lighthall Howe, have a combined 40 years of experience creating public, private, institutional and residential landscapes. The firm specializes in transforming challenging sites into landscapes that are durable, inviting and alive. With a founding staff of two, the firm has a rapidly built a diverse portfolio of work.

House on a Pond, Lincoln, Mass.

To connect this modern home with the forest around it, Wolf Lighthall used understated hardscape and bold plantings. Both a woodland garden and a gallery of beloved specimen plants, the landscape pairs salvaged shrubs and sculptural perennials with carefully placed boulders to complement and extend the owners' collection of Oceanic art.

 

---

House on the Ocean, Swampscott, Mass.

The design for this midcentury oceanside residence includes a shade garden, drive court, Japanese moss garden, as well as subtle screening and the renovation of established plantings. This project pioneered the use of air tools in the transplanting of mature trees and shrubs.

Photo: Arthur Schwartz

---

Urban Arboretum, Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston

The grove, renovated by Tobias Wolf in 2011 for the Greenway Conservancy, stands within the Urban Arboretum. Mature baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) anchor the narrow ramp parcel on Boston's Big Dig. Imposing from the outside but airy and intricate within, the grove creates a momentary respite of woodland plantings and dappled shade on one of the city's busiest corners.

Photo: Shadley Associates