The owners of a 12-acre estate in Bridgehampton hired LaGuardia Design Group to create a setting for their sculpture collection, which includes pieces by Maya Lin, Isamu Noguchi, and Richard Serra.
The firm introduced viewing pavilions and gravel paths and carefully positioned trees so that only one sculpture is visible at a time as people meander through the grounds. “It’s an innovative project that draws you in and holds you,” says judge Janice Parker, while judge Richard Keith Langham praises the “harmony between the naturalistic and formal elements.”
For a restored farmhouse property in Sagaponack, the firm updated the grounds while retaining existing stone hardscaping, mature willow and beech trees, and an apple orchard. The designers introduced groves of catalpa trees, a bosk of London plane trees around a dining terrace, and a second orchard near the guesthouse. Parker applauds how well “the new and old areas blend together.”
What started as a concept for a pool and meditation gardens grew to include an art studio and garden shed. Two 108-square-foot cedar-clad pavilions now sit at one end of the gunite pool, reached by a path of bluestone pavers and black Japanese river rocks, while the plantings—ornamental grasses and hydrangea—are kept minimal to complement the architecture of the studio and shed.