Landscape Design 
Landscape design ideas and tips for Marin & San Francisco Bay Area home owners. Residential landscape architecture in Marin County, California.
There are currently 8 blog entries related to this category.
San Rafael Resident with a Lifetime of Stories
Friday, October 21st, 2011 at 8:11am. 181 Views, 2 Comments.
If you're looking for a guide to the West End and San Rafael or a personal history of the Great Depression and World War Two, or maybe a unique garden tour, a musical evening, just the right screw for that broken door hinge or perhaps just some fatherly advice, then all roads should lead you to Stan Kosta's home on a quiet cul-de-sac above the Miracle Mile.
Stan, who turned 93 last year, has lived in his two-bedroom house since he bought it for $10,000 in 1948, bargaining with the builder as its wooden frame was being erected on a hilltop above the Miracle Mile. It had a wonderful panorama of San Rafael and the bay to the East, and Mount Tam, San Anselmo and Bald Mountain - when it really was bald and not covered in greenery - to the…
The Definitive Source of All Marin Real Estate Blogs
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 at 11:04am. 652 Views, 0 Comments.
While there is certainly an abundance (arguably, too many) of real estate blogs in Marin County, our Modern Blog offers a depth and balance of interesting, highly relevant and informative topics that I’ve yet to see in any other. Admittedly, I am biased as a regular contributor of the Marin Modern Real Estate blog but I do read an array of other blogs specific to Marin County Real Estate on a weekly basis.
We are a highly experienced and technology savvy group of sales professionals, each with a successful track record of closed transactions who bring a sophisticated and unique perspective to the current landscape of real estate in Marin. This isn’t the only reason our blog is different, always relevant and consistently provides information about…
An Italian Villa's Garden & Modernism - Presentation at the Tiburon-Belvedere Library this week!
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 at 8:57am. 1400 Views, 0 Comments.
And now for something completely different . . . An Italian villa's garden! 
You may be asking why I would suddenly depart from mid-century modernism to talk about a garden that was started in the 1400s. Well, mid century modernism never would have happened without gardens like this one. Here are three reasons why I am dicussing this garden.
First, I am going to be giving a slideshow presentation about the garden at Villa Gamberaia (outside of Florence, Italy) on Thursday, October 7th at 7:30pm. It will be held at the Tiburon-Belvedere Library on Tiburon Boulevard, and you are invited. The second reason is to let you in on a little secret about the garden - and gardening in general. More on that later. And third, garden design throughout history is a…
Case Study: Eichler Landscaping - the Atrium & Courtyard
Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 2:53pm. 4444 Views, 0 Comments.
This is a continuation of a previous blog, where I wrote about landscape ideas for an Eichler home in Marin. Last time, we focused on the front. And now, on to the courtyard!
One the most important exterior parts of many mid-century modern house is the courtyard space. Not every home has a courtyard, of course, and some have atriums, which is generally an indoor space.
"Courtyards—private open spaces surrounded by walls or buildings — have been in use in residential architecture for almost as long as people have lived in constructed dwellings.
The central uncovered area in a Roman domus was referred to as an atrium. Today, we generally use the term courtyard to refer to such an area, reserving the…
Eichler House Landscape - A Case Study
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 5:08pm. 2315 Views, 1 Comments.
Whenever people ask me, "How do you figure out what to do?", my first response is, "I don't really know, it's mostly intuitive at this point." But the reality is that there is a whole lot of theory, education, travel, exposure, reading and practice that goes into how any designer comes up with ideas of what to do with a property.
From my education - at LSU, in Baton Rouge - we were taught that the design comes from 3 places: first, the style of the home (no sense going against what you have, and also a desire to integrate the architecture and the landscape), second, what the land can actual do (this is what is now called sustainability, meaning what can really grow in a cetain place, not require vast resources, and last a lifetime) and third, what…
Heroes of Modern Landscape Design: Roberto Burle Marx
Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 8:47am. 5919 Views, 1 Comments.
Robert Burle Marx holds a special place in the development of modernism in the field of landscape architecture. Often times in books - and in my professor's history courses - he was set apart from others of the same period. In Elizabeth Rogers' book, Landscape Design, she gives him his own sub-chapter: Roberto Burle Marx and the Garden as Abstract Art.
Wikipedia says:
"Roberto Burle Marx in Brazil combined the International Style and native Brazilian plants and culture for a new aesthetic. "
That sums it up nicely - a new aesthetic. He was - and still is - so unique, that he stands out as a iconic master in the profession. His works are iconic also, especially the famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.
His paving patterns…
Heroes of Modern Landscape Design
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 8:46pm. 3516 Views, 1 Comments.
The first thing I thought about writing for this blog was a brief history of landscape design during the Mid-Century Modern period. Whenever I need to learn - or refresh my learning - about landscape design, I turn to Elizabeth Barlow Rogers' encyclopedic masterpiece, Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History. If it isn't in there, it hasn't happened yet! And even though her website says it took her ten years to write, I secretly think it must have taken twenty - this book weighs a ton, and has over 500 pages of very dense text and hundreds of pictures. If you want to learn anything about landscape architecture, this is your textbook!
My other favorite resource is the remarkable Cultural Landscape Foundation whose mission is "dedicated…
Robert Leeper Landscape Designer & Guest Blogger at Marin Modern
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 8:25pm. 2580 Views, 0 Comments.
I'm delighted to announce that Robert Leeper, an established & hip landscape designer, has joined our popular Marin real estate blog as a contributing editor for all things landscape and landscape design related.
Robert is the founder of Robert Leeper Designs, an award-winning landscape design firm he established in Austin Texas and subsequently expanded to address the needs of his growing clients base throughout the United States. A resident of Marin County, Robert will share his insights, ideas and knowledge on residential landscape and landscape architecture with our clients, friends, and website visitors.
While Robert Leeper Designs serves a diverse clientele, his firm has a fabulous eye for modernist landscape designs which…