Designing a contemporary landscape in Greenville, South Carolina's Heritage Historic District was a distinct challenge. As the contemporary architecture was scrutinized by the city's Design Review Board, it was imperative that the landscape architectural response be sensitive to both the architectural and community context.

Scott Crichton, the project architect, and Clint Rigsby, the landscape architect, had collaborated on numerous projects while working for large design firms in Greenville. Crichton struck out on his own several years before Rigsby started his own landscape architectural practice in 2019.

After this project received preliminary approval from the design review board, Rigsby was introduced to the client and invited to join the design team. Being a long-time resident of the historic district and having served for many years on the review board influenced Rigsby's approach to the project and guided many design decisions along the way.

Immediate Challenges
The lot is very narrow and is perched high above the street behind existing retaining walls. The client's charge to the architect (and subsequently the landscape architect) was to design a contemporary home at this gateway into one of Greenville's oldest historic districts. And gaining the favor of the Design Review Board and the community was difficult to say the least. After multiple meetings and revisions, the house finally received approval from the DRB.

Getting to Work
It didn't take long for Rigsby's creativity and vision to impact the design. For one, the site stairs connecting the front of the house to the street were originally planned to meet Marshall Street. At the landscape architect's suggestion, the stairs were relocated to connect directly to the public way along Atwood Street as historic homes on the street do, a solution which weaves the home more seamlessly into the community fabric in which it was built.

The home's private garden courtyard, which connects the main house with the garage, proved to be another significant design opportunity for the landscape architect. Asked to develope a plan for the courtyard that respected edges already designed by the architect and approved by the DRB was just one of the landscape architect's welcome challenges. Construction of the courtyard, which includes a covered space programmed for grilling, dining, and lounging and a small landscape zone open to the sky, started before the landscape architect's design was complete. Original sketches for the courtyard explored a composition of water, art, and landscape. All were incorporated into the final design.

A visual axis between the interior living area and the courtyard terminates in a 30+ year-old Japanese maple. The maple was discovered in the field of an old tree farm during the landscape architect's search for a specimen for the courtyard. Because the walls of the courtyard were built earlier in the project construction, the tree had to be craned into the garden by one of the Southeast's premier tree relocation companies.

 
Waterworks
A second visual axis connects the covered lounge area with the courtyard's custom, weathered steel water fountain. It was designed with slotted overflows to allow stormwater to discharge into the bioretention zone on either side in the event of heavy rainfall. Joints in the fountain's limestone backsplash align with the feature's three weathered steel scuppers. The natural bowl atop a small specimen boulder on axis with the Japanese maple collects rainwater and serves as a natural birdbath and water bowl for the client's cats and dog.

Hardscape
Dimensional limestone paving and steppingstones acts as the space's predominant hardscape material while an ipe walkway, designed to complement the architecture's wood clad walls and ceilings, functions as a boardwalk along a passive bioretention planting of soft rush. The courtyard's runnel is edged with limestone and filled with Mexican beach pebbles. The courtyard's design successfully highlights a seamless relationship between architecture and landscape.

Prior to the landscape architect's involvement, a budget-driven decision had been made to construct the motor court walls out of segmental block. The landscape architect's challenge was to address the interface between the two types of wall construction and elevate the visual quality of the segmental block wall in the context of this high-end custom home.

A pair of custom weathered steel planters were designed as a gateway into the private motor court while serving as creative transition between the two wall types.

Exposed, weathered steel edging elevates the landscape foundation on which the architecture rests while celebrating the beauty of this contemporary material across the site.

Softening the Look
Creeping groundcover plantings are encouraged to cascade over the segmental block walls, visually and literally tempering its appearance. In response to the neighboring history museum's refusal to allow the client to enhance its portion of the narrow landscape zone between the motor court and museum campus egress drive, the landscape architect selected narrow Chinese podocarpus to serve as a natural green screen that can be pruned within the narrow constraints.

A four-season palette of colorful native and ornamental plantings enhances architectural materials, details, and colors. A rhythmic planting of Skinny Genes oaks along the Marshall Street right-of-way contributes to the home's presence along this street while softening the architectural massing perched above the public realm. Trained to grow horizontally along a series of copper wires, Shishi Gashira Sasanqua camelias offer winter color and soften the courtyard privacy wall from the street.

Managing Site Drainage
This proved to be another opportunity to express creativity in materials and construction. Most of the house was designed without gutters. The site and landscape design had to account for roof runoff, especially on the Marshall Street elevation. The resulting design includes an "impact zone" of shade tolerant and water loving Everillo sedge, planted above a perforated underdrain system.

Runoff from some landscaped areas, as well as the covered roof structures, is collected in the courtyard's runnel and conveyed into the site's larger drainage system.

A rain chain transports runoff from a small flat roof above a garage workshop into a planter and permeable paving below. A second rain chain at the front porch roof descends into a mass planting of Little Henry Sweetspire. A passive collection system below each rain chain allows roof runoff to percolate into the native soil.
The Takeaway
The landscape architect was responsible for conceptual design through construction documentation, as well as oversight throughout construction, working with the client, architect, builder, landscape contractors, metal fabricator, water feature consultant, and tree location company.

Summarizing the results, Rigsby states, "The contemporary expression of natural and manufactured materials, minimalistic forms, linear geometries, and architectural plantings creatively respond to building massing and details."

TEAM LIST
Client: Steve and Wendy Dolven
Project Landscape Architect: W. Clint Rigsby -
Landscape Architect, LLC
Project Architect: Architecture 224 LLC
Interior Designer: Amy Emery Interior Design
Homebuilder: Majestic Builders
Landscape Contractors: Precision Landscape Management, Piedmont Landscape Maintenance
Water Feature Consultant: Signature Luxury Pools and Outdoor Living