The landscape of this new Portola Valley residence anchors the house in the surrounding grassy hillside and highlights distance views.  The low concrete walls that define the outdoor terraces and gardens are placed to draw the eye to the horizon, framing some views and gesturing to others.  No fences define property boundaries.  Drought tolerant native and climate appropriate plants follow the life cycles of plant communities of the neighboring hills, feeling at home through all seasons.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Portola Valley, California

completed: 2016

architect:  Feldman Architecture

photography: Marion Brenner

ASLA NCC Honor Award 2020

At this new residence on a hilltop north of Calistoga, the architecture was inspired by the vernacular agrarian and industrial buildings of the Napa Valley.  The landscape design reflected this approach, using board-form concrete walls and steps to carve circulation through the rocky hillside of oaks and madrones.  Courtyards, terraces and an enclosed vegetable garden at the house utilized more refined details and a simple, formal planting palette in contrast with the restored understory of the hillside and craggy forms of the adjacent forest.

This residence was destroyed in the Tubbs fire of 2017.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Calistoga, California

completed: 2015

architect:  Kathryn Quinn Architects

photography: Lutsko Associates landscape Inc.

The Arboretum GATEway Garden at the UC Davis Arboretum in Davis, California serves as the gateway between downtown Davis and the University. This teaching garden and outdoor event space showcase the University’s commitment to sustainability, environmental education and the local community. The garden, which sits on the historic water course of Putah Creek, uses plants native to the local watershed and a constructed water course to illustrate different ecosystems and best practices for storm water management.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

client: The UC Davis Arboretum

location: Davis, California

completed: 2015

photography: Marion Brenner

ASLA NCC Honor Award 2016

The landscape of this new residence balances in the contrast between the curved form of the building and the straight lines formed by Pacific Ocean horizon on one side and the city street on the other.  At the back of the site, the hardscape and pool edge reflect the horizon, while a hedge and stepped plantings mirror the form of the Santa Monica Mountains.  In front, curved walls shift and warp, responding to the building’s form while carving out an entryway.  A raised roof terrace and pool bisect the back yard, creating secluded gardens with distinct characters.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Pacific Palisades, California

completed: 2013

architect:  SPF:architects

photography: Marion Brenner, Bruce Damonte, Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. staff

Wheeler Farms is a winery, food and flower farm, and hospitality site on 11.5 acres in the Napa Valley south of St. Helena. Fruit and olive orchards, herbs, flowers, vegetables and chickens thrive in the gardens surrounding the winery, hospitality building and terrace. Stone walls and steel planters anchor the geometries of the buildings in the landscape. Giant old oaks, some native, some planted by the site’s first known farmers, were lovingly protected with specialized construction techniques. Their majestic presence welcomes visitors to the farm as they have for generations.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

client: Bart and Daphne Araujo

location:  St. Helena, California

completed: 2017

architect:  Taylor Lombardo Architects

consulting arborist:  John Meserve

photography: Adrian Gregorutti

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts comprises one city block of downtown Beverly Hills, California. The project includes a new theater building and renovation of the historic Beverly Hills post office into teaching spaces, a café, event space and offices. The landscape compliments the neoclassical post office building and provides a graceful transition to the contemporary Goldsmith Theater. Outdoor spaces include a sculpture garden, teaching garden, a café, event terraces and a public walkway through the site.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

client: The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

location: Beverly Hills, California

completed: 2013

architect: SPF:architects

photography: Marion Brenner

The Portola Valley Town Center is the heart of a small community located in the hills west of Stanford University. The 11 acre site was completely redeveloped based on a comprehensive community process that resulted in a new library, town hall and community hall. The buildings are located towards the back of the Town Center site behind a restored creek. Native gardens, a great lawn and plaza for town events, sports fields, tennis courts and a playground take the foreground, providing outdoor gathering spaces for residents of all ages and interests.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

client: The Town of Portola Valley

location: Portola Valley, California

completed: 2009

architect: Siegel & Strain Architects with Goring & Straja Architects

creek restoration: ESA

photography: Jason Liske

At this new residence, buildings and site were designed collaboratively to create a series of large exterior rooms that expand the building interiors and create a dramatic variety of experiences throughout the property.   Views to an adjacent historic ranch are filtered by plantings and low walls that obscure the property line while enhancing the long view to meadows and ancient oaks.   Oaks and grasses were used throughout the site to further the connection to the ranch and foothills beyond. 

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Woodside, California

completed: 2009

architect:  Walker Warner Architects

photography: Marion Brenner, Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. staff

ASLA Honor Award Residential 2013

The T. Elliot Weier Redwood Grove at the UC Davis Arboretum holds the largest collection of coast redwoods outside of their natural range. They were planted in the early 1940s by Dr. Weier, the arboretum’s founder, and have been beloved by generations of UC Davis students. In the early 2000s the grove landscape was restored. Extensive soil aeration, a new irrigation system and mulch provided improved conditions for the trees. A new understory of native plants, paths, furnishings, signage and a central gathering space provided a new didactic framework and reinvigorated the grove for its human patrons.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

client: The UC Davis Arboretum

location: Davis, California

completed: 2004

photography: Marion Brenner

Beautiful mature oaks and redwoods provide the framework for the gardens at this Woodside home.  This extensive renovation includes new terraces, a pool and spa, a large fireplace, bocce court and outdoor kitchen.  The plantings take their aesthetic and horticultural cues from the trees.  Banks of native and drought tolerant plants flow under the oaks while the lawn is framed by moisture loving redwoods.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Woodside, California

completed: 2015

photography: Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. staff

A small back yard at this San Francisco row house was expanded into a secret garden when the owner acquired the adjacent panhandle lot.  While the lots remain separate legally, their boundaries are obscured.  A gallery of concrete forms respond to the varying conditions.  Long, shallow steps create an informal gathering place around a fire pit; a narrow concrete stairway charges up the hill; curved walls carve a gravel terrace from the hillside.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  San Francisco, California

completed: 2014

photography:  Jonathan Hallet for Lutsko Associates landscape Inc.

The Pond at Oak Savanna Vineyards is a hospitality site on a private estate and vineyard in the Santa Ynez valley of Central California. An irrigation reservoir was adapted to create gathering places and a boating pond.  Massive concrete walls extend 12’ below the surface of the water, creating a wonderfully deep swimming hole. Surrounding hillsides are planted with native grasses.  A large terrace and dock host events of varying sizes.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Los Olivos, California

completed: 2004

photography: Marion Brenner

ALSA Honor Award Residential 2009

This impeccably renovated home is sited on a small ridge between an existing creek and a seasonal water course that that was freed from its culvert as part of the landscape project.  A bridge provides entry to the home.  A formal simplicity in materials and planting compliments the traditional character of the buildings.  Native plantings restore nature to the surrounding oak hillsides, meadows and the water courses to a new health and vigor. 

Project Manager SD-CD, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Hillsborough, CA

completed: 2003

architect:  Robert Frear Architects

photography: Marion Brenner

At this new vacation home for an art collector, a continuous concrete wall steps and turns to define interior spaces and adjacent courtyards and gardens on a half-acre lot.  Outside the wall, careful plant selection brings the greater wild Idaho landscape onto the site, visually expanding the space out to the adjacent ridgeline miles away.   At the building entry, domestic and wild meet.  Steel risers extend from the stepped walkway to the house, holding elegantly composed beds of native plants.

Project Manager, Laura Jerrard
Lutsko Associates landscape Inc. project

private client

location:  Ketchum, Idaho

completed: 2004

architect:  Allied Works Architecture

photography: Marion Brenner

ASLA Award of Excellence Residential 2008