The clients, well-traveled and busy professionals, envisioned a different kind of existence for their retirement. A five-acre former horse field in Fairfax County captured their imagination for working with the land, keeping bees, and living more simply. Richardson & Associates was pleased to join the project team early in the process, which allowed the site planning to emerge in tandem with the finely detailed new house by Thomson Cooke Architects.

From its hilltop vantage, the house was sited to enhance the arrival view and frame vistas across the property. R&A worked with the county requirements to reestablish a forest of apex hardwood species along the perimeter of the property consisting of over 100 trees, a small orchard, and an extensive kitchen garden. The curving gravel entry drive introduces the rustic formality that defines the rest of the home and gardens, and it is lined with Freeman maples (Acer x freemanii), which provide stately structure and brilliant color in the fall.  

Situated on the front hillside, the orchard features two varieties each of apple, peach, and pear, nut trees, and four cultivars of blueberries. Further up, adjacent to the house, the side yard kitchen garden has over 200 square feet of stone-edged raised beds for vegetables with a border of vibrant pollinators and herbs such as lavender, rosemary, and bergamot. An espaliered apple tree brings a taste of the orchard into the kitchen garden. 

At the rear, a sequence of terraces and plantings define the ordered scene. Closest to the house, a reflecting pool with a medieval fountain is the focal point and offers sound and reflection from the sunken patio courtyard. Traditionally planted with boxwood and ferns, the patio is enclosed by a stone wall that steps up two feet to the robust perennial garden of the lawn terrace. An outdoor pavilion with a fireplace rises beyond the formal terrace and is set among a looser, native array of grasses and flowering shrubs, which blend into the woodland edge. Although entirely new, the composition of the house and landscape reinforces a sense of place and fulfills the lifestyle and aesthetic desired by the owners.

Landscape Architect: Richardson & Associates Landscape Architecture; Architect: Thomson Cooke Architects; Interior Design: Melissa Colgan Interiors; General Contractor: Thorsen Construction; Landscape Contractor: Lucas and Clark