New outdoor space for a contemporary Beverly Hills villa , CA

Starting from scratch

Like most of our projects, this one was started from scratch. The house had been renovated and there was only dirt around. The particularity of the site was the slope all around the house. It was like a sink shape with the house at the lowest point.

• First thing to do: shaping the slope, and making small terraces all around in order to be able to plant and make sure the plants will root strongly in the ground. It was also needed to deal with the erosion.
• 2nd: developing a design that will take advantage of the particular land form, and will bring privacy to the site. Our response was to play with the ondulating lines of the site and the alignment of multiple hedges. We planted 380 Ligustrum texanum bush 15gal, 170 Ligustrum texanum columnar 15gal, 52 Ficus nitida columnar 24″ box, & 180 Ficus nitita columnar 5gal.
• 3rd: planting large trees to frame the property and bring character. We decided to plant a few Pinus Eldarica, Tristania conferta, Podocarpus gracilor, Quercus agrifolia, and some Citrus espalier trees.
• 4th: the ondulating lines were planted with Ligustrum texanum bushes.
• 5th: a few accessories were added such as planters, lighting (dramatic effect all around the pool deck), and wicker furniture.

For the implementation of the trees (36″ box, 48″ box), a crane was used to bring the trees from the street above the property to their final defined location. Trees were in the air for a few minutes, sometimes going above the house. The unloading was done with a permit from the City of Beverly Hills. To follow the regulations, a crew was outside to regulate the traffic.