Down to Essentials
Hidden behind a side-by-side condo on Lake of the Isles, this bluestone terrace and dipping pool was designed for a radiologist who wanted a grilling area, a pool, and lawn and lounging space—and it all had to fit into his 40-by-50-foot rectangular backyard. Principal Stephanie Grotta and senior designer Travis Van Liere of landscape architecture firm Coen + Partners in Minneapolis designed a petite refuge where this bachelor can chill with friends and grill a meal without sacrificing the stately appearance of the 1929 Tudor he shares with his condo neighbor across the fence.
❶ Obvious Can Work
Many times the most straightforward solution is the right solution. Grotta and Van Liere packed purpose into the space by not overcomplicating their design. Just outside the back door is a small bluestone grilling area that steps up to the patio with its parallel strips of lawn and dipping pool. The pergola and fireplace, designed in cooperation with Minneapolis architecture firm Domain, are at the back. “It’s very, very transparent,” says Grotta.
❷ No Tricks
What you see is what you get. All the materials used here—glass tile, New York bluestone, Mexican beach pebbles—look and act like themselves: Stone is stone, grass is grass. There’s no trickery to the eye, no coyness. “Our goal was to give his backyard a richness and an integrity, so we played it straight,” says Van Liere.
❸ Contrast with Canopy
The landscape design is packed with rectangles and squares, from the bluestone tiles to the turf to the shape of the pergola. But Grotta and Van Liere knew that the leafy, craggy limbs of the huge oak trees overhead would break up all those right angles. The outdoor fireplace, rising up nearly 18 feet, seems to point our eyes toward that majestic canopy.
❹ Smart Design
The narrow dipping pool, just 29 feet long and 10 feet wide, has a shrewd feature: a staircase that doubles as a sitting bench, where the doctor and his friends can lounge and soak and chat with people hanging out under the pergola.
Alyssa Ford is associate editor of Midwest Home.
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