For the Girls

In full swing of the pandemic, the clients needed a space for the girls to run, climb, hide, and explore. The design layers the play experience: slide, climber, scramble, and discovery path into a rich, wild garden, using planting to knit the space together and elegantly hold a multifaceted program that serves the whole family. 

The wide center slope was restructured and the retaining walls clarified, pulled into clean lines that tightened the back to a perfect 55-degrees for the slide and widened the front to create a terraced culinary garden, making the slope an integrated element with a seemless flow from the upper and lower lawn.

The custom robinia structure is both climber and fort with steppers that lead over the wall,  for graduated challenge height and angles can be re-configured as the children grow. 

Established Sycamore, Pittosporum, and Orange Trees offer canopy and focal points. Planting palette is greens with pops of silver and chartreuse. A year on the landscape is buzzing with life; a shared space for bees, birds, children and adults.

Project Design: lu — la (Sara Brunelle — landscape, Katie Smith — planting) 

Location: Santa Monica, CA (2021)
Project Type: Residential

Location: Santa Monica, CA (2021)
Photos: Caitlin Atkinson

Awards: 2023 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Excellence Award in Residential Design

Thank you to our amazing clients for their trust, it was truly a pleasure designing with you.