This Coastal Landscape Celebrates Nature

On the upper terrace, landscape architect Tara Vincenta anchored wind-resistant umbrellas in the buff-colored granite to provide shade while withstanding coastal gusts. The team at Moore House Design sourced the outdoor furniture.

The entrance gates set on granite posts match the trim of the house and open to a peastone parking court and the guest cottage.

Straightforward, strongly defined, and salt tolerant, Russian sage and fountain grass flank the main entrance.

Below the umbrella-shaded terrace, bluestone steps lead to a peastone firepit terrace that overlooks the gabion wall and cove.

The corridor beside the house is flanked with inkberry, switchgrass, and joe-pye weed.

The design team planted a rain garden filled with liatris, feather reed grass, baby joe-pye weed, black-eyed Susans, fountain grass, and asters to absorb water runoff

It was necessary to leave a coastal buffer intact between the landscape and the cove, but it was permissible to open up the view by trimming shrubs to four feet. The area also includes storage for kayaks, and the gated gabion wall hems views to and from the water.

Before taking on any project, Tara Vincenta listens. The principal of Sandy Hook-based Artemis Landscape Architects hears clients’ hopes and dreams for their property and talks with other members of the design team. But the pivotal moment comes when Vincenta stands on the land and perceives the space. Brought to a Jamestown, Rhode Island, project by architect Ron DiMauro, Vincenta saw the site’s hidden view that was begging to be unlocked and celebrated.

The clients, of course, had their wish list, and the DiMauro team knew the building parameters, but the property told Vincenta how to make a landscape possible. “I design by feeling,” Vincenta explains. “I have to stand in a landscape and feel it. Then I know what the land is asking for and how we can put all the pieces together.”

The project began in 2020, and DiMauro’s team had their fair share of architectural conundrums to tackle. Although the property is 165 feet wide, only thirty-six feet were suitable for structures due to surrounding wetlands. In that tight envelope, the clients, Rhode Island natives, tasked the architect with incorporating a contemporary Tudor-style main house, an attached two-car garage, and a separate guest cottage. To fulfill their request for stucco with a slate roof, project manager Tyler Zagryn utilized an acrylic stucco that would withstand oceanfront weather.

Vincenta took all challenges in stride, skillfully installing a rain garden filled with deep-rooted panicum, joe-pye weed, liatris, asters, and black-eyed Susans massed in sweeps of color.

Balconies beckon the family to bask in the view, while perennials around terraces lead the eye down to a gabion wall framing the water and coastal scrublands. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d live in such an idyllic spot,” says the homeowner. It’s a sentiment they’ve echoed to Vincenta. “This is their forever home,” she says.

“It’s a brilliant contemporary take on an old-world house by the sea. Here we celebrate nature.”

Project Team
Landscape design: Artemis Landscape Architects
Architecture and interior design: DiMauro Architects
Interior design: Moore House Design
Builder: K&R Construction Co.