O.C. Landscape Architectural Firm Wins for "Over the Rainbow Cottage"

The "Over the Rainbow Cottage," designed by Lifescapes International, Inc., won the "Best Landscape Design-Secret Garden" award at the 20th Annual Project Playhouse event.

The 20th Annual Project Playhouse event sponsored by HomeAid Orange County (Calif.) took place at Edwards Court in the Irvine Spectrum, Oct. 8 to Nov. 11, 2011. That event included the People's Choice Award on the creativity and the design of four custom-made fantasy playhouse themes sponsored by housing developers, designers or contractors.

The garden setting of the "Over the Rainbow Cottage," designed by Newport Beach landscape architectural firm Lifescapes International, Inc., won Best Landscape Design-Secret Garden Award.

The Over the Rainbow Cottage is of course a playhouse inspired by the Kansas farmhouse in the Wizard of Oz film (1939) lifted from its foundations by a tornado and flown through the air "somewhere over the rainbow" to Munchkinland, falling to ground coincidentally on the Wicked Witch of the East.

The garden was designed and installed by Mike Meyers, a Lifescapes International principal. This is Mike's fourth HomeAid O.C. playhouse design. He won Best Landscape Design several years ago for the creation of Giupetto's Workshop.

"We reached out to many of our creative friends in the landscape industry to help donate special plant materials, crazy props, musical excerpts played from the movie, and Munchkinland-style fantastical flowers, along with so many other themed design details," explains Mike. "Maya Rodgers hand painted and created the yellow brick road detail, located many of the props we used and, along with myself, oversaw the installation of the playhouse".

"I am an avid Oz fan," admitted Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, president/CFO of Lifescapes International. She's a collector of all things Oz, an active member of the International Wizard of Oz Club and recently attended Andrew Lloyd Weber's production of The Wizard of Oz! in London. Julie is also a co-founding board member of HomeAid Orange. HomeAid Orange was founded in 1989 by the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California to provide housing for the homeless. She currently is on the HomeAid executive committee.

All four playhouses were auctioned on Nov. 11th at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. The evening included silent and live auction items and raised $511,000 for the organization! The proceeds fund HomeAid Orange County's efforts to help end homelessness

Editor's note: Lifescapes International, founded in 1958, was the landscape architectural firm for a number of featured projects in LASN, "A Vibrant Village: Celebration of Community, Culture and Connection,"
www.landscapearchitect.com/research/article/11826 and "Wynn's Dreamscape" www.landscapearchitect.com/research/article/12189, just to name two.