Honor Award
Resi den t i a l a n d Ga rden Desi gn
Stephen Stimson Associates
This five-acre property lies due south of Acadia National
Park and is bound by the Eastern Way of the Atlantic. It
was first established in the 1880’s as the summer home
for Charles Eliot, President of Harvard and creator of
Acadia National Park. By the mid 1900’s the property
had changed hands, the original home demolished
and the land had succeeded into a climax forest.
project name.
location.
Northeast Harbor
Mount Desert Island, Maine
Once feeling like an extension of Acadia, but years
of neglect and construction blasting, the canopy of
evergreens, extending from Acadia across the site, had
been severely impacted. The goal of the project was
to again ecologically reconnect the site. The clients
requested a minimal program – to create a family
sanctuary that felt as if it had always been there and
resonated with the surrounding wilderness. The program
included terraces, a play lawn, a kitchen garden, and
woodland trails to connect the main house to the
lower site.
The designers’ research discovered that the land once
supported diverse plant communities. From this historic
research and field visits, they introduced a more extensive
palette and focused on restoring planting zones
according to earlier stages of succession.
Through this renovation a thriving and diverse landscape emerged on a once ecologically devastated site
creating a restored landscape and a micro-Acadia for
the new owners.
2013 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Fieldbook
61