HOME IMPROVEMENTS
W
Luxe
Landscaping
20 724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE | Chartiers Valley
hen Karen and Richard McNeer relocated east of Pittsburgh
from Boston, where they lived for 30 years, they wanted to find
something similar to the very modern loft they owned there.
Eventually, Karen and Richard settled on a newly renovated, open-plan house
with a vacant lot running alongside of it.
“The owner of that empty lot was interested in putting in condos, so we
bought it from him to preserve the green space,” Karen shares. “I’m an avid
gardener. I spent a good deal of my childhood in nurseries. My father hybridized orchids
and my mother was a wildflower expert.” While the home already had a well-designed
deck and patio complete with a fireplace feature, Karen had a higher vision for that lot
space. “I wanted very modern, clean lines, not a traditional English cottage garden. I was
going for a Zen feel but we couldn’t pretend that it was going to be a mountain terrain or
a winding pathway.”
The McNeers brought in a licensed landscape architect. The lot had been used for
parking and was a hideous sea of gravel—almost impenetrable, like concrete. But any
space can be turned into a good space. The challenge was to create something that
could serve as an art piece viewable from the many windows above, but could be a quiet
retreat, as well. The couple also wanted to enclose the yard, as pedestrians tended to use
the space as a shortcut between roads.
The project’s biggest design challenge was organizing the narrow 125-feet-long by
24-feet-wide area without it becoming too busy or feeling boxed in. Furthermore, some
room had to be left for the neighbor to maintain the exterior wall of his house.