Private Residence
Pittsford, NY

Work at this private residence involved the creation of a comprehensive site master plan to guide the future development of the property over successive construction phases.  It also included final design and construction administration for phase 1.  The principal goal of the project was to maintain the rolling character of the landscape and preserve view corridors, while affording the homeowners their desired site features–a swimming pool, tennis court, and tennis/pool house. A number of site constraints made assembly of the landscape elements into a balanced composition a difficult task.  Because the property is a corner lot, it is subject to two front setback restrictions.  That fact, coupled with the existence of a leach field and steeply sloped areas behind the house severely limited the number of possible locations for the swimming pool in the immediate backyard area.  The grade change on the site offered tremendous potential, however, and it became the basis for the success of the design.  By cutting the pool into the slope, the pool area was given immediate spatial definition by the bank.  Furthermore, it became easier to preserve view corridors over the pool, with the slope providing a natural screen to the pool, deck, and fencing.  The pool’s position both adjacent to and below the tennis court created the opportunity for a shared tennis/pool house with entry to the kitchen and bath at pool level, and entry to the open pavilion at the tennis court level.  In order to relate the pool to the landscape, the pool was given a curvilinear form derived from the existing contour of the land.  This form in combination with the pool’s low elevation relative to the other garden spaces, gives the composition a sense of natural order.