This garden provides three generations of a Brooklyn Heights, NY family with a tranquil escape by harnessing the simplicity, restraint, and natural materials integral to traditional Japanese garden design. The owners, originally from Japan, had lived in their townhouse for decades prior to a renovation that transformed the home into a multi-generational duplex. While the renovation required excavating much of their original, beloved garden, it provided the design team an opportunity to create a strong connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces.

The new design honors the original garden’s spirit while reinterpreting it for the site’s new grades and proportions. At the heart of the upper terrace stands a 50-foot-tall Sophora tree, protected throughout construction due to the clients’ strong personal connection to it. When CoVid construction delays and site conditions threatened the health of the tree, the Landscape Architect collaborated with arborists to restore it through air-spading and precise pruning. Because traditional paving and planting near the tree was not feasible due to its sensitive root zone, the Landscape Architect incorporated gravel mulches in the spirit of karesansui (dry landscape). This dry landscape reduces irrigation requirements, protects the Sophora from root rot, and creates a material connection between the upper and lower terraces.

Where paving was possible, the Landscape Architect utilized salvaged Asian granite curbs, re-cut as pavers, treads, and wall caps. This salvaged material adds warmth and character while reducing material waste. The light-colored granite pavers on the lower terrace reflect sunlight into the adjacent study and sit atop a deep gravel bed that retains stormwater. Excavation for the new cellar yielded several massive boulders native to the site. The Landscape Architect incorporated these into sculptural arrays on both terraces and coordinated with the Architect to set a collection of them into the poured concrete floor of the study. This feature further reduced material and fuel waste, avoided hauling fees for the client, and brought an integral landscape feature into their interior—forming a connection between two beautiful spaces, year round. This feature avoided hauling fees and brought an integral landscape element into the interior—forming a connection between two beautiful spaces, year round.

The design highlights the planting by selecting unique specimens. The clients contributed extensive research, adding unusual plants from their favorite gardens in Japan. The Landscape Architect developed a restrained palette that showcases these specimens while providing necessary screening and privacy.

Ultimately, this home and garden represent a harmonious fusion of architecture and landscape—a space that honors tradition while accommodating the rhythms of contemporary family life. It demonstrates how site-sensitive design and ecological stewardship can strengthen small-scale, urban residential gardens.