Island Retreat

The goal of this project was to preserve and enhance the remarkable natural setting while avoiding the impression that anything had been “landscaped”. In studying the dip and strike (angle and direction) of adjacent bedrock outcrops, and poking through two to four feet of soil and construction gravel, it was determined that a glacial-polished bedrock shield lay beneath the overburden. This was removed to reveal an extraordinary bedrock ramp extending from the parking area to poolside. Pockets in this ramp were then planted, and “glacial erratics” were placed upon its surface.

Additional “glacial erratics” were placed around the buildings, on the terraces, and adjacent to pathways, in order to further tuck the buildings into the site and to gently direct circulation around the buildings. Several of these boulders, some in excess of twenty thousand pounds, were placed within inches of the buildings and under the eaves. A very limited palette of native plant materials – shore pine, vine maple, salal, and mosses gathered on site – were used, in conjunction with the creation of additional rock outcrops, scree fields, and rotting log mulch, to complete a landscape which appears to have changed very little since its emergence from the last ice age.

Architect: Suyama Peterson Deguchi