Location:
Fort Ross, CA, USA
Year:
2025
Photographer:
Rio Phoenix
Team: Theresa Rathslag (lead), Story Wiggins
Architect: Alchemy Architects
Client: Itai and Merav Vonshak
Contractor: Akita Landscape
A project that is both a residential garden and an ongoing ecological restoration, the garden focuses on a hyper-local planting palette of small natives grown nearby. The result is beautifully subtle, with a deliberate difficulty in distinguishing what has been planted from what has always been there.
The built elements are more graphic and monolithic, echoing the architecture. The approach is either to work with the existing landscape or to float above it, avoiding disturbance to the delicate wetland habitat. The stone and timbers feel distinctly of this place, while the way in which these materials are used is purposeful and highly legible.
The project is complete in some ways; boardwalks are set and the stone patio isn't going anywhere. But the effort to reclaim this coastal garden with native planting will be ongoing. The winds from the ocean will continue to fell branches for future benches, boardwalks, and anything in between that floats and exists delicately above and with this emerging garden.
