Emily and John are a young, sophisticated couple with MCAD degrees in graphic design, who now own an ad agency. They live in a great modern cedar shake-covered home on a heavily wooded, 1.5 acre lot. After completing an indoor renovation that was featured in multiple design magazines, they were ready to turn their eye to the 'out of doors'.

It was love at first sight when we arrived in their neighborhood, a small 70's style enclave in the woods (think Norman Jaffe - like this - or this). Suffice to say, it was intimidating to learn that we would be competing for the job against a landscape architecture firm that's been very influential to us. We'd never been in the position before where competition was so literally connected to the creative side of the work. It was a huge honor to be chosen, and we're extremely proud of our progress so far.

Our first steps involved getting rid of a pretty healthy Buckthorn population, beginning to define the woods, and creating an actual yard for their young children to play in – but to be honest, 'yard' lacks the descriptive power necessary for such poetic surroundings. Eventually, we plan to add two ipe decks, a walking path through the woods, a few substantial raised lawn areas with steel walls, and even some steel sculpture.

As John and Emily's project is a large and ongoing, we plan to be working on the site for three to five years coming. We'll continue to share more of the project as it happens!