Built Work Images:

Before and After Images:

Coral Gables, Florida 2002-2006

Our clients decided early on that they wanted their new house and garden to reflect the haciendas of their Cuban homeland, complete with royal palms, a generous lawn, and tropical textures. Cesar Molina’s tropical colonial-style architecture, with its covered verandas and buildings arranged to create integral garden spaces, is well suited to the subtropical climate.

Our first big gesture was to install a pedestrian-scale plaza outside the perimeter fence of the house proper. A sizeable trellis, set back fifty feet from the property line, runs perpendicular to the street and is covered with flowering vines that veil views of the house. Once inside the auto gate, cars are directed along a long natural drive that imparts the feeling of the approach to a rural estate. Since there was no budget for pavement, we excavated slightly to expose the oolite limestone bedrock, grinding it for a more even surface.

The two-and-a-half-acre corner lot offered numerous topographic challenges. Situated on the highest ridge in South Florida (in fact, just a short distance from the Ward garden), the property slopes gently from almost twenty feet to only four feet above sea level. The excavation for the foundation of the guesthouse, across the auto court from the main house, created a four-foot bluff, making the house appear awkwardly sited. To compensate, we reversed the slope of the hill away from the guesthouse, constructing an oolite limestone formation. We built a stream to cascade down the slope and over the top of the formation as a seemingly natural waterfall. Fill from the immense excavation contours the site, creating undulations that appear natural and setting up a wide variety of garden experiences. Fruit trees and indigenous plants along the periphery define a window to the sky and create habitat and privacy.

The random concrete panels from the entry plaza are repeated in the auto court. Offset with zoysia grass, they allow for the percolation of rainwater. In the center of the generous courtyard, a large rectangular oolite monolith carved to function as a bubbling water basin is flanked by chambeyronia palms with vanda orchids attached to their trunks.

On the side of the house by a dredged waterway, the pool, developed by Molina, is an extension of the architecture. The pool and garden patio are at the level of the house. Inside the pool, we added seat ledges, steps, and finishing that mimic the residence. Palms shade the pool and patios; pavement is minimized. Views across the pool area and down the long wide waterway influenced the placement of the widest portions of the pool deck. Between the pool pavilion and pool is a rectangular water garden with fish. The terraced lawn beyond the pool is sized to accommodate a tent for large parties. Past this, steps down to the boathouse and its parking court pass through oolite retention walls that convey the feeling of a grotto.