Designing an outdoor entertainment center provides a Landscape Architect with many opportunities to be creative, while at the same time providing just enough challenges to keep you on your toes.

Often you find yourself working with a small yard or a small budget that just won't meet the client's needs. Or you've got a huge backyard and are able to install all the bells and whistles, but things have to be accessible and scaled properly to the yard. There are a lot of unforeseen challenges that can arise in an outdoor entertainment center. Here's what to look for . . .

An outdoor entertainment center can add to the living space of a home. With amenities spaced conveniently throughout the yard and scaled properly, the backyard becomes an inviting area for entertaining.

Give Me Shelter

Working in Arizona, Craig Potter of Terrain Systems, Inc. knows the importance of hiding from the blazing Sonoran desert sun. Potter was designing a backyard in Scottsdale, Ariz. that was 50 feet deep at its widest point, and 90 feet long at its longest, while narrowing to 30 feet in one part of the yard. This property exists in a master planned community that is highly restrictive with regards to natural turf and non-desert type of plantings. Although the lot is fairly small, it is typical of the semi-custom home communities of Arizona.

On the northwest end of the yard, a fire pit and artificial putting green were installed. Potter specified two 24-inch box Chilean mesquite trees to be put in that area. One tree covers the putting green and the other covers part of the fire pit and part of the putting green.

"We used trees on the west side to block the afternoon sun, because it gets pretty intense out here in Arizona" Potter said. "The trees provide some shade for the artificial putting green, otherwise it gets pretty warm, because the artificial grass is not as cool as the real grass."

On the east side of the yard a 24-inch box blue Palo Verde provides shade for an elevated seating area that consists of a fireplace which is adjacent to a barbecue. The blue Palo Verde in the yard matches the blue palo verde in the open space behind the residence.

Mark Scott of Mark Scott Associates, located in Newport Beach, Calif., where the heat is less extreme, still finds the weather a challenge. Many of Scott's projects are outdoor "rooms" where televisions and audio equipment are installed, often requiring a roof to be installed.

"It's a challenge," Scott said. "Certain setbacks are different if you have an open structure like an arbor. Something without a roof is different than if you have something with a solid roof. I've seen cases where you do the framework for say a gable roof but put canvas over it so it looks like a cabana almost."

On one particular project, Scott was working with a small linear backyard that had a pool. The homeowner desired some shade and privacy. With little room for landscape relief, Scott found a way to block the sun and the prying eyes of neighbors.

"We put in a really heavy eyebrow arbor which has two columns," he said. "The arbor cantelievers out over the space and gives it some shade and a sense of intimacy.”

It is important to remember that amenities such as a fireplace or firepita re scaled to the space it is serving. "Just because the yard is huge, you don't need a huge fireplace . . . you'll be sitting next to it and say 'Oh my gosh this thing is out of control,'" said Mark Scott of Mark Scott Associates.

Convenience of Amenities

It is often as much a matter of money as it is size determining where the amenities in an outdoor entertainment center go. Obviously you don't want everything compacted into one area, it is best to have everything spread out. Well, spread out but still convenient.

"People want everything close to the house and real convenient," Potter said. "You want to make it functional, but things usually look more attractive if they are not too close to the house. If they are out in the background, closer to the landscaped areas, you've got some softscaping around it and not just a patio with all the hardscape blocking the view."

At the residence in Scottsdale, Potter used the various elevation changes of the yard to place amenities. The yard itself sloped up going away from the house so he stepped up the area where the fireplace was higher than the barbecue. These elevation changes allowed for other amenities such as a water feature to be seen from inside and outside the house.

A waterfall was installed going into the pool. Potter and the pool installation company teamed up on the design of the pool and water feature with Potter spelling out the location of the waterfall.

"One thing I hate is a pool where the waterfall looks like the Matterhorn just sticking up out of nowhere," Potter said. "This particular waterfall looks like it is part of the slope like everything is coming down into the pool. Originally the homeowner viewed that slope as a negative because it was just laid off clean during the grading period."

Potter wanted the backyard to blend with the open area to the east of the yard. He installed a 2-foot high block wall with wrought iron fencing.

"Visually you can see the landscaping, and it feels like it is part of the whole yard," Potter said. "The rock waterfall that is backdropped by plantings and boulders looks like it is part of the natural landscape just coming right into the yard.”

Living on the California coast in Newport Beach allows residents a nice view of the Pacific Ocean and the Newport Back Bay, which can be a tricky situation when placing amenities. At one residence Scott was installing a barbecue center, an arbor and a fireplace. This required some creative placing because anything blocking the view of the bay would be in the wrong place. So what Scott did was place the barbecue center with some turf and planting on the left side of the yard. On the other side of the yard sits the fireplace and arbor, while off of that is a spa.

"They [homeowners] can be in the house enjoying the view with these really neat elements out there to utilize," Scott said. "It is also important that it be in proportion to the space it is serving, and not the whole yard," he said. "Just because the yard is huge, you don't need a huge fireplace because it'll be dwarfed and when you are sitting next to it you'll say 'Oh my gosh this thing is out of control.'"

In Scottsdale, the yard provided the perfect place for a fireplace because of the elevation changes. Because the lot stepped up Potter wanted to play off that and use the natural landscaping behind it to soften the fireplace a bit.

"We didn't want to put the fireplace where it would block views coming out of the house because the fireplace is a pretty big structural element, and it was kind of a natural spot to begin with," he said. "You can see other things up there behind it that soften it."

Pools & Putts

A pool is a common item in a backyard entertainment center, and even putting greens are catching on as well. Obviously the placement of these are critical as they can be the focal point of any yard.

"I like to have an entertainment center, a barbecue grill space and the fireplace," Scott said. "Followed by the arbor as a separate place and then transition to the spa or pool or whatever else may be between."

Scott recently completed some interesting backyard designs incorporating pools. One project was an outdoor living room with a sunken entertainment center attached to a swim-up bar for the pool. Guests are able to swim up and sit at a bar stool and eat. For the land lovers, there is another counter on the land side that allows you to do the same thing. He also did a project in Del Mar, Calif., near San Diego that featured a pop-up television that was built into the bar allowing the homeowner to sit in the spa, hit a button and the TV pops up. It also has surround sound speakers around the spa.

"It's important to make sure to get the balance of hardscape, landscape, and architecture in there. It just depends on the client's desires," Scott said.

At the Scottsdale residence, both a putting green and a pool were installed. Potter proposed the artificial putting green as a solution that would meet the client's desire for grass, provide a recreational space for the client and his guests. He also designed a pool and water feature that would appear as a desert spring in the landscape. The putting green was placed directly north of the pool which is the far end of the amenity. Natural decomposed granite was placed around the green and boulders and red yucca are at the end of the pool deck on the far side.

"The putting green was placed where it was because it was a large flat area and we didn't want to place it behind the pool; if you missed a putt, it would run right into the pool," Potter said. "It softens the backyard up and the green really makes a nice contrast against all of the granite-type materials that we use in Arizona."

Backyards can be a challenge, but corners and otherwise discarded areas can become great utilized spaces. "Create spaces, places or rooms," Scott said. "That is the key to space planning, it's utilizing the whole yard."