Monte Cielo

The precipitous siting of this 1960's Hollywood Regency house required that the grounds be extensively revised to accommodate outdoor entertaining and safe play spaces for a family with two young children.

To reflect the modernist up-grades to the interior, a minimal approach was taken to orchestrating the outdoor spaces - which include a covered dining room, valet bench at the front of the house, play space, sun-bathing and spa terrace, a barbeque area and an extensive car court. The hardscape palette was composed of washed, integrally colored concrete, rough-sawn board-formed concrete, honed limestone set in a parquet pattern and stacked flame-edged limestone. The jarrah hot-tube was set in an ipe hardwood surround. A curved, segmented ipe bench wraps the bowed front of the living room.

Plantings were selected for their shadow play next to the stark planes of the house, for their protective hedging potential at the edge of the slope and for their slope retention qualities as the garden quickly gives way to the wild chaparral of the hills.

Credits:
Garden Design, Sarah Munster