Mar Vista Garden
This landscape project for a young family surrounds a modest house within the iconic Mar Vista Housing Tract designed by Ain, Johnson and Day in the late 1940’s. These homes were designed with a sense of optimism: that an efficiently designed house can be affordable. The landscape design for the development was by Garrett Eckbo. We reimagined the garden and replaced the ubiquitous lawn that surrounded the house with drought tolerant plantings that reflect the clients’ modern taste for efficiency in the garden. A small square lawn for the children is located immediately adjacent to the house which has lots of windows so that the children can easily be monitored. This lawn is protected from the street by tall ornamental grasses. Raised vegetable planters are tucked into the front garden and surrounded with evergreen rosemary, bay laurel and dwarf olive shrubs. Guests walk through this scented garden to reach the front door. Citrus trees have been planted along the sides to provide screening between the neighboring homes. We designed a lap pool in the back garden, along with a terrace for outdoor dining. New operable panels open up the entire living room to the garden. Finally, we replaced the turf in the parkway with walkable groundcover plantings that use little water.