ILCA Honors —
A Lakefront Retreat by Heather Prince
When clients purchased this property in Glencoe on a busy road, they desired a private retreat on their new piece of Lake Michigan bluff and were inspired by seven existing mature oak trees. They tore down the existing house and built a modern contemporary home, hiring Scott Byron & Co., Inc. at the beginning of the process to ensure the landscape meshed seamlessly with the home. We spoke with Stan Seianas, landscape architect; Ethan Lindsay, client relations manager; Tony Wendt, production manager; and Maurilio Zamora, field manager to explore the development of this wooded retreat on a very special part of the lakefront. Designed in 2013, installed in 2014 and completed in 2016, Scott Byron has continued to maintain the property. Start at the beginning Among the client needs identified were a new driveway
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approach linking the home and road that also included a paved courtyard for offstreet guest parking. Privacy from the busy street was important. Surrounding the home in a garden setting with pathways that allowed for free movement between the different areas was also a priority. “We have a process with our clients to develop a design program so that we can monitor and record the needs that the clients have at the outset as well as the style of the home, challenges on the site, etc.,” stated Seianas. “Some of the things we first identified were straightforward. We needed to rebuild the steps and the walls along the path to the bluff to make them safe. We wanted to reuse some of their existing wall stone and flagstone, removing some of the old timbers that were quite dangerous, and giving it a fresh look. We also wanted to remove some of the brush and the scrub from the bluff, but only as necessary. The goal was to work with the qualities of the site and add our aesthetic to it. The client also wanted to utilize
The Landscape Contractor April 2021