Landscape Ontario Awards of Excellence Winner

Residential Construction

The Hillcrest Residence was a unique challenge as from the slope of the lot was immense; it dropped over 22′ from the kitchen door to the low point of the yard. This was by far the largest challenge of this project. The client was looking for a number of items from a swimming pool, outdoor sitting areas, somewhere for their 3 kids to play, along with creating privacy in the middle of the city.

This was done by installing a 17′ high engineered wall, to eliminate the majority of the slope and create a level area for kids, and a place to plant a number of trees for privacy & shade on this lower tier, this doubled the usable space of the backyard. From the upper deck with a beautiful wood burning fireplace they have a view of their new pool, back dropped by granite stone on the edge of the pool and plantings providing privacy from the neighbour’s home. The focus of the backyard is the swimming pool which is the primary entertaining area, and while in it, there is no view of any of the surrounding homes, this was done by lowering the pool almost two feet below the existing high grade where the steps lead down from the upper sitting area, and surrounding it was appropriate plantings for the situation.

Two small bubbling rocks were also installed in different areas of the yard to provide a noise damper to the neighbours. A combination of pre-cast and natural stone was used to create this backyard retreat in the city, A two tier amour stone wall was constructed between the playing area with two sets of natural stone steps leading to the pool deck, to create an area that was easy to keep a watchful eye on the children without fencing off the pool. Last but not least landscape lighting was installed to create a beautiful ambient light to extend the use of the yard throughout the evening & season. All this brought together a backyard for the family will enjoy for many years.