Garden Dialogues 2014: Virginia
On dates in June through October 2014, get exclusive access to private gardens and notable landscapes in Virginia and hear directly from the designers and their clients about their collaborative process.
How do clients and designers work together? What makes for a great, enduring collaboration? Garden Dialogues provides unique opportunities for small groups to visit some of today’s most beautiful gardens created by some of the most accomplished designers currently in practice.
Event registration is now closed.
Photo by Roger Foley
Saturday, October 11th, 10:00am to 2:00pm | Northern Virginia Trio (Hume and Marshall) | Includes Lunch
Northern Virginia: Rock Ford Farm, Orlean House and Running Cedar
Richard Arentz, Arentz Landscape Architects
Three properties are on the agenda – all Potomac Chapter ASLA Award winners. The house and gardens of Rock Ford Farm were carefully sited by the landscape architect to maximize views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and surrounding rolling pastures. The new house reflects several architectural periods: mid-18th century farm-style barn, an early-19th century brick cottage and a mid-19th century Greek Revival core. Mature and distinctive hardwood trees were preserved to provide age and a sense of scale. There’s a large lawn contained by American boxwoods, kitchen garden and terraced orchard, and a secluded swimming pool “room” built around spectacular Blue Ridge views.
Next on the agenda is Orlean House, an 18-acre c.1795 property that has recently been updated. New elements include a swimming pool, pool pavilion, tennis court and tennis court pavilion, terraces for entertaining, large tree and boxwood restoration and extensive gardens. The site plan weaves the new and existing parts into a series of gardens, designed in the spirit of the English Landscape School and Virginia Countryside vernacular.
Running Cedar carpets much of the beech, hickory, poplar and oak woodland of this 85-acre property accessed by a three-quarter-mile-long driveway. Remarkable features include its rolling topography and proximity to the Rappahannock River. The project is a collaboration between the landscape architect, architect and interior designer and the plan strikes a balance between integrating the built forms into the landscape and the landscape into the built forms. Nearly every room of the house offers a unique connection to the landscape through the study of interior to exterior compositions. more photos
Photo by Ansel Olsen
Saturday, June 21st, 1:00pm to 2:30pm | Richmond
Rice House
Peter O'Shea, Siteworks, with Rich Conti, Director/CEO, Science Museum of Virginia
This 6,000 square foot International Style house designed by Richard Neutra is on a granite ridge 110 feet above the James River – and the panoramic views are spectacular. The property is now owned by the Science Museum of Virginia and the landscape is being developed to reflect its layered ecological and cultural history ranging from its pre-European settlement to the present day. more photos
Photo by Eric Piasecki
Sunday, June 22nd, 10:00am to 12:00pm | Charlottesville
UVA Landscapes: The Dell and Campbell Hall
Warren Byrd, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, with Mary Hughes, University Landscape Architect
Two projects at the University of Virginia’s campus use the most up-to-date landscape architecture technology that reflects the evolution of this World Heritage historic site. At Campbell Hall, “odd lots” are stitched together through the elegant use of paths, native foliage and water features. The 11-acre Dell features a precisely engineered stream that flows into carefully calibrated stormwater pond, with native plants that represent the Coastal Plain, Piedmont and upper Blue Ridge regions. All of this planning, and it looks so natural and so beautiful. more photos