''The designs for Stella Del Mare created an exclusive community that combines many unique materials and details to evoke the feel of Italy, while still managing to incorporate the natural beauty of coastal South Carolina.''

The Team
To bring to life the very specific vision of the client, WPi worked very closely throughout the entire project with team members, including the architect (Group 3 Architects), the interior designer (Dan Flannery), the contractor (The Stringer Group) and artisan John Boyd Smith.

WPi provided permitting services during the land acquisition and subdivision phase of the project, then provided detailed design and construction document services for the entry garden, fountain terraces, boardwalks, and lion garden, swimming pools, fountains, paving, walls, fences, gates, fountains, landscape plantings and lighting.

Separate sets of CDs were provided for each individual residence with gardens, terraces and pool areas. Design sketches were prepared for of all hand-carved elements such as balustrades, benches, urns, copings, caps, fountains and paving designs. In addition, WPi provided construction observation and administration services for all constructed phases.

This residential enclave with the mellifluous name, which was featured in the Wall Street Journal, has extensive custom details: antique hardware, fixtures, custom upholstered walls, Venetian glass chandeliers, hand-carved marble and limestone, reclaimed architectural pieces, hand-pieced mahogany floors, state-of-the-art media rooms, exercise rooms and gourmet kitchens.

The main challenge for the landscape architect was to reach this same level of luxury with the outdoor design. WPi managed to integrate a 2,000-square-feet alfresco living space into dramatic ocean side pool terraces, spa and garden areas on the ground floor of each home. High levels of detailing and craftsmanship are evident in each home?EUR??,,????'?????<

The entry garden offers a lawn and circular fountain. The homeowners are allowed to display sculpture and art here, such as these deer statues. Twenty-five foot pines were craned in to screen the development from the adjacent Driessen Beach Park. The plant palette here includes shrubs, roses and hydrangeas and other plants typically found in Mediterranean gardens.

Community Character
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The fountain terrace has a palm allee with a central water rill terminating on the primary fountain with antique sculpture. Manicured landscaping, dramatic lighting and custom iron and stone features surround this space. This main fountain, with its linear rill and terraces, ends with an antique terra cotta cherub sculpture (provided by the client from their travels) in a quatrefoil-shaped basin. The fountain terrace is paved with Macedonia limestone and bluestone copings. The cherub fountain with its night lighting provides a focal point that can be seen from many vantage points in the homes. The ocean side garden features pool areas with a hand-carved fish fountain. Tabby paving pads set in lawns provide for alternative seating areas around the pools and hot tub.

The Fountain Terrace terminates at an antique terra cotta cherub sculpture fountain with a quatrefoil-shaped basin. A palm allee borders the terrace.

The Mare pool features a hot tub that cascades into the pool and a lower pool that can be enjoyed from the loggia level of the home. Centro?EUR??,,????'?????<

The Fountain Terrace, situated between Toscana Mare (back of the home pictured) and Toscana Centro homes is the development?EUR??,,????'?????<

The lion garden features a carved fountain face representing the north wind instead of a lion, providing an interesting topic for conversation. One of the goals of the design was to provide opportunities for owners to share stories about travels providing history and character to the community. Custom wrought-iron gates were used at beach access points maintaining privacy. Native dune plantings were placed along the ocean side to improve aesthetics, health and diversity of the dune system.

The designs for Stella Del Mare created an exclusive community that combines many unique materials and details to evoke the feel of Italy, while still managing to incorporate the natural beauty of coastal South Carolina. Stella Del Mare provides a luxurious getaway for its owners and guests unlike any other.

This is the view of the linear rills of the Fountain Terrace looking toward the beach. The terrace is paved with Macedonia limestone and bluestone copings. The hand carved limestone balustrade is one of six styles of balustrades designed for the development, one for each home and this one for the common spaces.

About the Firm
Wood+Partners Inc. is a planning and landscape architectural firm founded in 1988 that serves a diverse range of clients throughout the U. S. and the Caribbean. The firm?EUR??,,????'?????<

Three of the five homes front the ocean, with a boardwalk leading over the dunes to the Atlantic. This is the Centro home, so named because it is the center home of the three and borders the community terrace. Along the oceanfront native plantings were added to the dunes to improve aesthetics and improve the health of the dune system. Cabbage palms (the tall palms) and dwarf European fan palms are among the palms species on site.

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The Toscana Mare home also has a hot tub that cascades into the pool, differing from the Centro?EUR??,,????'?????<

WPi also provides land planning, landscape architecture, comprehensive master planning, site planning, resort master planning and amenity design, retail village and town center design, urban design, recreation and park master planning, feasibility studies, community consensus building and public workshops and project administration.

The balcony view of the Centro home shows the uniquely colored travertine chosen for the pool coping. The hot tub overflows into the pool. Tabby paving pads set in the lawn provide for alternative seating areas around the pools and hot tub. The Fountain Terrace is at left.

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Consultant Team

• Wood+Partners Inc.: prime consultant, land planning, landscape architecture and permitting
  
• Group 3: architecture
  
• Dan Flannery: interior designer
  
• Andrew Stringer: builder
  
• Surveying Consultants, Inc.
  
• Conner & Associates: civil engineers
  
• K&P Engineering

Contractors & Vendors

• John Boyd Smith: ironwork artist
  
• Pool & Fountain Installation: year round pool
  
• Rick Bent Flooring: flooring installation
  
• Landscape/Hardscape Installation: The Greenery, Inc.
  
• Hardscape Elements: Savannah Hardscapes