Long Island Private Residence
QRP, collaborating with Cook Fox Architects and artist Paula Hayes, developed an extensive landscape design for this 10-acre private residence overlooking protected dunes and the Atlantic Ocean, with large graded lawns and meadows, lush plantings, dense groves of trees and a 19,000 sf pond.
The project included large, mature plantings of Silver Linden, White Pine, and Cryptomeria for screening. Many unusual specimen trees already on the property — a legacy of a previous owner who was a landscape architect — were preserved and integrated into the new design. The roofs of the main house and all outbuildings were planted with Little Bluestem, sedums, and junipers to reduce stormwater runoff and insulate the structures. Several large existing trees, including 30-foot-tall Bald Cypresses, were dug up from other locations on the site and moved into a tight grove at the pond's edge — part of an effort to create a near-complete landscape from day one.
The pond was excavated to a maximum depth of 10 feet, lined with a composite bentonite clay and fabric blanket, and topped with a 12-inch layer of sand. Its shape was designed to fit within critical zoning setbacks, with curves and contours that make it read as larger than its actual dimensions. The edge was accented with several 8- to 10-foot rustic Onodaga Limestone boulders set into the bank so they appear to emerge naturally from the water. QRP closely supervised the final shape of the pond, the boulder placement, and the plantings on-site. Riparian plantings of sedges, wood oats, and native shrubs such as Inkberry cluster around the boulder outcrops to ground them visually, while the water's edge is planted with naturalized marginal aquatics — pickerelweed, Typha, and blue flag iris — along with a sparing use of water lilies.
Location
Long Island, NY
Client
Private
Role
Landscape Architect
Team
Cook Fox Architects
Paula Hayes artist
