Merit Award
Killingsworth
Piedmont, CA
Landscape Architect: Joseph Huettl
This East Bay residence is the only Northern California home designed by the late Mid-Century Modern Architect Edward Killingsworth. The original landscape was overgrown with Juniper and pine and had very little outdoor living space. Referencing a Mid-Century Modern design language, the redesign involved removing several large, aging Monterey Pines, carving out a new outdoor living space on the side of the house, creating a new and more inviting front entry steps, and organizing the front hillside into a series of parallel terraces. Three separate water features add interest and life to the design. Ash White concrete and smooth masonry walls, combined with subtropical plantings of palms, succulents, clumping bamboo and perennials lend a certain "Palm Springs" charm to home. The water features enhance the liveliness of the frequent garden parties that the new design encourages. The heavy use of succulents and the judicious use of synthetic lawn create a luxuriant subtropical landscape that uses very little water.