Honor Award
Where Agriculture Meets Coastal Woodlands
Sebastopol, CA
Lead Landscape Architect: Jan Longwell
The three acre site is at the intersection of the coastal oak woodlands and the agricultural fields of vineyards and old Gravenstein apple orchards. The apple was the most widely grown crop in the small farming community of Sebastopol in Northern California, but now due to disease and lower yields, there are only a few orchards that have not been replaced by grape growing. The house shares the property with a neglected Gravenstein orchard and native Coast live oaks that have gradually reclaimed the hedgerows and sections of the orchard that have died. Where the orchard has succumbed to the oaks, the design allows the native trees to reclaim their natural habitat. In the lower section of the site, the agricultural history of apple cultivation was preserved by restoring portions of the orchard with new fruit trees.
