Designer Snapshot: The Essential Gardener

By Paula M. Bodah

As a landscape architect, Gregory Lombardi takes the approach that designing a garden is about creating a narrative specific to each site, distilling and revealing the true spirit of the space. That was certainly evident in the Boston rooftop garden we showed off in our March/April issue. Below, Greg gives a few more examples of his work, describing how each element was conceived to speak to the essence of the site.

Photo courtesy of Warren Patterson

“The fire pit really crystallized a part of this property in Weston, Massachusetts, that felt intimate and removed even though it was fairly close to the house. We used materials and placements to make a very gentle statement about becoming aware of the natural setting and the simple wonder of fire.â€

Photo courtesy of Warren Patterson

“We used the stone gate as a means to enter a lower-level tennis court in a western suburb of Boston. The scale of the gate could have dominated in a harsh way, but instead it has an almost Shinto quality of reverence. The stone expresses nature, but also the tectonics of crafting something from basic elements.â€

Photos courtesy of Gregory Lombardi Design

“We conceived the terrace deck to capitalize on the specific drama of the location overlooking a pond in Brewster, Massachusetts. Balancing the deck as a cantilevered space tenuously clinging to the land emphasized heaviness and lightness in contrast, and made for an almost unsettling dialogue that was at once grounded yet exhilarating.â€