ITS PRIVATE ENOUGH BUT OPEN TO THE STREET

It hardly screams, "Look at me, Im different" to the streets ranch houses, with their front lawns and casual gardens, but its easy to spot the Andrea Cochran landscape in an upscale suburban neighborhood in the foothills of the Peninsula south of San Francisco. Probably the only design that approaches minimalism within blocks, its also a living model of what Andrea Cochran, FASLA, is trying to accomplish with residential landscapes.

Cochran thinks of this as more than a one - off residential project. She wants to "create an alternative model for the standard front yard...appropriate to the neighborhood and the Northern California climate." She veers away from what she considers the areas two typical approaches to the front yard: an open lawn area with no mediation between house and street that makes high demands on water and other resources, or a tall barrier of hedging or fencing that shuts off the street from the house.

Instead, the result here is private enough for two new terraces, yet it is open to the street It is sustainable yet surprising —its grove of native oaks is as provocative as a sculpture garden. Cochrans elegantly simple but unexpected patterns of paving and plants —a trademark of hers —and new entry steps invite a journey instead of the daunting trudge upward they once posed. It is a front yard, in her words, "that engages a home, a street, and the senses."

This project was a landscape remodel for the front of a one - third - acre lot. It won a 2011 ASLA Professional Award, the seventh for Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture of San Francisco, in the Residential Design category. Her diverse range of winning projects includes designs for an oasislike landscape in an affordable housing project in a blighted San Francisco area, a Zen - ish Sonoma County farm, and an ecological and educational landscape at Nueva School.

She is currently working with the architects Legorreta + Legorreta and Tom Leader Studio Landscape Architecture of Berkeley on a 14 - acre complex for the headquarters of Salesforce.com in San Franciscos burgeoning Mission Bay district.

The owners of the Peninsula Residence, Max and Linda Woo, connected with Cochran through the San Francisco architects KUTH/RANIERI, who were designing a remodel for their house, which was originally designed in 1980 by the Chicago architecture firm of Nagle Hartray in a Chicago modernist tradition. The Woos admired Cochrans approach to design and found it a match for their own tastes.

The challenge here was a 30 - year - old landscape that consisted mostly of a neglected slope planted with an assortment of ornamentals whose greatest commonality was constant thirst. The steepness of the entrys steps, straight up to the front door, intimidated older friends of the Woos. There was no usable space for relaxing or entertaining. The oaks had grown so thick and dark that they concealed the house.

Cochrans intent was to create a landscape that offers "a private refuge" yet still allows the house front to connect to the neighborhood from the base of the slope at street level right up to the front door.

Next to the street, a former asphalt parking area was replaced by units of permeable paving that crawl with Dymondia margaretae, a delicate, silver - gray ground cover that resists drought and blooms with tiny yellow flowers in summer. The paving provides parking space and invites neighbors to walk on it. Along the back of the paving, slope - retaining concrete walls create a swale for a formal row of Lomandra Ion - gifolia Breeze, a grasslike native of Australia that forms deep green clumps year - round —another low - water, low - maintenance plant.

Cochran paid homage to the oaks that covered much of the slope and made them the landscapes dominant feature. And she treated them with kid gloves. Three decades ago, the Woos planted 20 coast live oaks, native to the canyons up the street, and some of the trees are now more than 30 feet tall. Cochran had them pruned to reveal their twisted trunks and branches. She left the ground bare under the trees because California oaks are notorious for disease problems if given summer irrigation. Fallen oak leaves are left on the ground to become a protective mulch —another nod toward naturalism and away from the usual suburban trend of water - demanding ground covers.

To stabilize the slope without disturbing the oaks sensitive roots, thin walls of Cor - Ten steel, rather than thicker concrete retaining walls, were slipped into place. Cor - Ten is a Cochran favorite, and she has used it throughout the design —she especially likes the steels "color of the earth" and lets it rust and stain with time.

A new stair, made of concrete poured in place and saw cut, invites a less intimidating and more intriguing journey to the front door. Lined by Cor - Ten walls, the steps zigzag their way up through the oaks, offering close - ups of gnarled branches and trunks and their interplay of light and dark. Described by Cochran as "a choreography of movement," each turn offers a surprising new focus —a twisty oak, a small sculpture, a bold steel wall. A visitor climbing the steps doesnt see the entire route: Each of the three groups of steps is kept no higher than eye level. Cochran, ever mindful of aesthetic details, hid the light fixtures underneath the stair treads —"I hate to see light fixtures," she says.

Atop the stair, at the front door, a 920 - square - foot landing pad includes a dark, shallow reflecting pool and a secluded courtyard. The pool is made of a black, polished concrete, and its continuous sheet of water mirrors the sky and the tree canopy above, changing with the season and the time of day. A thin sheet of water trickles over the pools perimeter and softly invites visitors at the street to the entry. The custom black concrete pavers of the entry are set on pedestals to create a level plane that joins seamlessly with the surface of the pool.

A translucent glass canopy extends over the front door area and the pool, offering protection from weather and adding a play of reflection and shadows on the pool. Lights on top of the canopy glow at night.

The 520 - square - foot courtyard next to the pool opens off the family room to create convenient outdoor living space that sits right above the street but is secluded. A four - foot - high Cor - Ten wall screens off the street and directs views from the house or terrace up into the tree canopy. Cantilevered from the wall, gray granite slabs offer a place to sit or to display succulent plants. Underfoot, dark concrete pavers are set into the blackest gravel that Cochran could find.

A smaller matching terrace at the opposite end of the front entry opens off the dining area and kitchen. With a stainless steel portable grill, its a good spot for grilling and relaxing in complete privacy. The offset Cor - Ten walls and offset granite benches display another of the hallmarks Cochran deploys throughout the design: horizontal and vertical planes that intersect and/or nearly miss each other, "which makes you feel you are not in a box." Instead, gazing over the wall through the oaks, secluded from the street, you feel as if you are in a treehouse.