Andrea Cochran

2
Andrea Cochran: Landscapes
Mary Myers
Foreword by Henry Urbach

Princeton Architectural Press

New York
Published by
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Editor: Laurie Manfra

Designer: Jan Haux

Special thanks to: Nettie Aljian, Sara Bader, Nicola Bednarek, Janet
Behning, Becca Casbon, Carina Cha, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell
Fernandez, Pete Fitzpatrick, Wendy Fuller, Clare Jacobson, Aileen
Kwun, Nancy Eklund Later, Linda Lee, Aaron Lim, John Myers,
Katharine Myers, Lauren Nelson Packard, Jennifer Thompson, Paul
Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural
Press Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

Front cover image by Vicky Sambunaris

Back cover image by Marion Brenner

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Myers, Mary, 1952-

Andrea Cochran : landscapes / by Mary Myers ; foreword by Henry
Urbach. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-56898-812-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Landscape architectureUnites States. 2. Cochran, Andrea.
I. Cochran, Andrea. II. Title. III. Title: Landscapes.
SB469.33.M94 2009
712.092--dc22
2008040538
 Co ntents

7 f o rew o rd
Henry Urbach

9 I ntentio nal Landscapes :

the designs o f A ndrea Co chran
Mary Myers

P R O J E CTS
30 Walden Studios
44 Brookvale Residence
56 Childrens Garden
66 Perry Residence
78 Curran House
88 Hayes Valley Roof Garden
98 Ward Residence
110 Portland Art Museum
120 Ross Residence
130 Peninsula Residence
142 Stone Edge Vineyard

164 Acknowledgments
167 Appendix A: Plant Index
170 Appendix B: Materials Index
183 Project Credits
187 Selected Bibliography
190 Image Credits
192 Staff Members, 19982008
 7

fo rew o rd

Riotous, lush, overgrown. Such are the gardens of Andrea Cochran.

No.
Strict, clipped, manicured, fussy.
No, thats not right either.
Eclectic, fanciful, frilly, capricious.
Not at all.
Historicist. Emblematic. Naturalistic.
No!

Abstract. Balanced. Composed. Considered. Deft. Elegant. Generous. Intuitive. Layered. Mindful.
Nimble. Particular. Restrained. Rhythmic. Spatial. Textured. Understated.

Thats better; these words feel closer to the mood of Andies gardens. But can they really capture
what it feels like to step into one of these lovely places? On entering you find extraneous informa-
tion slipping away as an unmistakable quiet takes hold; you feel a kind of slow and gentle zooming
in. They say that simply looking at the open sea brings ones blood pressure down, but to inhabit
one of Andies gardens is to be transported into another kind of space, a degree-zero zone, a
moment of stillness, a world that sustains a feeling of simply being.

We live in a time of so many endings: posthistory, posthuman, postmodern. Nature, long seen as the
source of truth and beauty, no longer maintains its authority; it has become a style, among others,
to be appropriated. So much contemporary work serves to dampen this awarenessto imagine, for
example, the formal authority of the organic or the ethical primacy of the greenyet Andies
projects seem to emerge instead from the knowledge that landscape, now and always, is artifice,
the practice of illusion.

In the re-natured spaces she composes, Andie gathers elementsmaterials, concepts, formal prec-
edents, textures and holds them in a state of equipoise. Her work asserts the possibility, perhaps
the necessity, of quiet, stillness, and understatement in a world that continually produces a surfeit
of information and form. Restraint, as seen in these beautiful gray-green worlds, is the art of leaving
someone wanting more.

Henry Urbach

Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
 9

I ntentio nal landscapes: The designs o f andrea cochran

Glancing in, your first view of the garden is a translucent door glowing softly

white in a mocha wall. Gnarled branches of an old live oak thrust up toward a

perfectly blue summer sky. As you push down gently on the silvery steel handle,

the door opens, then closes behind you. Turning, you are confronted by thou-

sands of stiff upright spears; the heights and masses of their thin black and green

stems seem to bar the way. These are Equisetum hyemale (horsetail), sheared to

a crisp five-foot height and massed in blocks like sentries. Their angular sever-

ity is unsettling, but a flowing path reassures, beckoning you forward. Brushing

against the horsetail, you meander as if in a dream, unheedful of time. The scent

of jasmine wafts over you. Glancing back past the mazelike blocks, a slash of

white-topped grass, suffused with light, strikes a sharp line across the scene.

With your eyes narrowing in concentration, you breathe in, and slowly exhale,

as the soft gurgle of water draws you back toward the path.
10

A garden by Andrea Cochran is a designed space where visitors find ease amid contradiction.
Sharp angles contain flowing space, and severe geometries are softened by the delicacy of slen-
der branches and rustling leaves. Cochrans work is distinctive for its synthesis of disparate ele-
ments. Crisp graphic legibility is countered by glowing luminescent walls and elegant plants.
Unlike other landscape architects, who may shape spaces into linear sequences of outdoor rooms,
Cochran uses abstract geometry to structure spatial experience. Her cubic landscapes give the
sensation of being within a sculpture and looking at it, at the same time.
Cochrans landscapes defy conventional expectations. They are places in which design
merges with the realm of art. The most striking feature of her work is the combination of austere
geometry with rich materiality. Conveyed in spare language, her designs are potent expressions
of the human capacity to celebrate and interact with nature. The presence of the human hand is
always discernable through strong geometries, manmade materials, and skillful craftsmanship. It
is counterbalanced by larger forcesthe rustle of the wind in bamboo leaves, the distant view of
rounded hills, or the glow of morning sunlight against a stand of grassesto enliven the space.
John Dewey (18591952) wrote that elements from past experiences give body and sugges-
tiveness to a work of art, saying that they often come from sources too obscure to be identified
in any conscious memorial way, and thus they create the aura and penumbra in which a work of art
swims.1 Cochrans landscapes draw on several influences, including the rigorous symmetries of
classic seventeenth-century France, as well as modernist landscape architecture of the twentieth
century. Those who have visited the gardens of Andre Le Notre or Dan Kiley may sense a kinship
with her work. Like them, Cochran uses gravel planes and grids of trees to shape space, but her
landscapes also reference sculpture, in form and experience; and painting, in theory and composi-
tion. The tactile and spatial aspects of sculpture and the color and texture of painting have helped
shape her work. Her grasp of these disciplines is largely intuitive and experiential. Her formal ele-
ments are minimalist, but she is not a purist. Driven neither by theory nor polemic, she seeks to
distill the essence of the site and to respond to its innate character with creative design.
Materiality and craftsmanship are particularly important to the landscape experiences that
Cochran devises. Materials are never used solely as decoration but are integrally linked to com-
position. Her palette is spare: steel, aluminum, glass, acrylic, gravel, stone, concrete, and plants.
A materials purpose is to structure and support the overall design. For example, the Childrens
Garden is characterized by crisp thin lines containing broad swathes of monochrome color, some-
thing like a De Stijl painting. The lines are formed of half-inch-thick sheets of Cor-ten steel; the
materials tensile strength is capable of retaining heavy soil. If another material, such as concrete,
had been used for the edges, the effect would have been noticeably different. The lines would
Childrens Garden,
San Francisco, California

In California, most people are
transplants. Some feel a comfort in re-
creating the familiar, but those are not
the people that come to me. My clients
want something more intangible. I try
to help them express their individuality,
which has allowed me the freedom
to create personal, innovative spaces
that resonate with our climate and
environment.
Andrea Cochran, October 6, 2007
11
not have been narrow stripes but two-inch-thick bars. The blocks of color are homogenous masses
of yellow and white ground cover. If they had been mixed plants of varied heights or colors, the
visual effect would have been less dramatic and its allusion to painting less apparent.
Cochran grew up and was educated in the northeastern United States. Had she remained
there, her work would likely have been quite different. She moved to San Francisco in the early
1980s, following graduation from Harvard Universitys Graduate School of Design and an appren-
ticeship with architect Jose Luis Sert. In Cochrans words, California liberated her. There she
found the climate, cultural openness, artistic aspirations, and economy to support her desire to
engage in design, free of restraint and conventional expectations. California was freeing for other
American landscape architects, too. Since the 1930s it has been the center for change and growth
in the profession; with modernists such as Thomas Church, Garrett Eckbo, Hideo Sasaki, Lawrence
Halprin, and Peter Walker establishing the disciplines direction. Contemporary practitioners con-
tinue to build on their legacies.2
American modernists, in turn, were influenced by internationalists such as Luis Barragan
and Roberto Burle Marx. Cochrans work is an outgrowth and extension of this tradition, but her
main source of inspiration is art. She cites the work of Robert Irwin as particularly influential, and
it is easy to see the similarities. Both are minimalists. Irwin approaches landscape design from an
artists perspective, considering it primarily for its experiential qualities; however, his designs can
seem disconnected from the larger environment. Cochrans strength is the ability to capture the
essence of the larger landscape and respond with an alternative form of design. Her spaces are
sculptural yet rooted in context. Response to context has always been a key feature of landscape
architecture. An English picturesque estate, such as Longleat, leapt the garden wall to capture
woodlands and grazed meadows within its view. Even the fixed geometry of Versailles acknowl-
edges context through the long structured view of a distant, open, poplar-framed landscape.
On a smaller scale, the Zen Gardens of Kyoto partake gracefully of their mountainside location.
Cochran does not seek to artlessly blend her designs with the larger environment by employing
naturalistic forms. Instead, she uses abstract geometry as a means of juxtaposing enclosed spaces
against soft, rolling hillsides or wooded backdrops. It is an act of acknowledgement and apprecia-
tion of the external setting through contrasting form. If external views are not wholly positive, then
her designs seek to respond to the natural forces of light, wind, and rain.
12

Co mpo sitio n
A key element underlying Cochrans approach is the belief that a landscape should form a unified
and fully integrated composition with the architecture. Paying careful attention to flow and view,
she strives to create a seamless experience between interior and exterior. Axes radiate out, with
the composition being quietest or simplest near the house or other structure so as not to detract
from it. Often, geometry becomes increasingly rotated and rhythmic as it moves outward. Blocks
of plants may break from a mass, or a retaining wall may vanish in the earth and emerge else-
where. At the Perry Residence, for example, seat walls stop and start in linear cadence. Repetition
Perry Residence, is used as a means of communicating rhythm within order. The cubes of Equisetum hyemale
San Francisco, California (horsetail) in the Brookvale Residences entry sequence exemplify her use of patterned repetition
and spatial punctuation.3
A landscape composition must address the basic elements of mass and void, solidity and
emptiness. Cochran establishes order through the use of straight lines embodied in plinths, bars,
and blocks. Bars slide past one another, and blocks speak across distances. Polished or textured
concrete walls and solid cubes of plants form masses of varying heights, strategically interspersed
among paths or voids. Some projects, such as the gardens of the Brookvale and Perry residences,
absorb the eye in a totality of rhythmic order.
Often, Cochran devises compositions within compositions, where spaces are experienced
discretely and independently, from various vantage points. This is illustrated by the pyramid,
meadow, and reflecting pool at Stone Edge Vineyard. Though these spaces can be perceived
individually, tension is heightened by the striking contrast of the flat plane of meadow grasses
with the floating plinth of water and the sloping pyramid. The space around each element affords
an experience akin to being inside of a sculpture. For example, the inclined stone sides of the
pyramid offer different perceptions. The textured facets stimulate vision and tactile fascination,
and they encourage physical movement from one side to the other. Ones eyes are drawn to the
mottled stone, as the hand reaches out to touch the warm smooth surface. Turning a corner, a
startling broad expanse of meadow opens up in an animated rectangular plane.
Spare geometry is used to achieve compositional order. As in abstract painting, elements
can be interchangeable. A rectangular ground plane could be composed of gravel or lawn. A
block could be a pool of water, a bed of ground cover, or a pile of stones. Coherence is the aim.
Some compositions employ playful optical effects. For example, the Childrens Garden appears
to change with the visitors vantage point. From above, it appears as a two dimensional canvas
or painting, but as one moves into the garden, the painting springs to life with startling three-
dimensionality. What had seemed like a flat ground plane swells into walls, ramps, and terraces.
 13

Stone Edge Vineyard, Sonoma, California

14

Walden Studios,
Alexander Valley, California
Cochran also pays careful attention to the gardens relation to contextits place in the
world. She achieves this by capturing external views and bringing them into the garden. Japanese
call this Shakeii, or capturing the view alive. Traditional Japanese gardens accomplished this by
framing views and mimicking plant forms. For example, a carefully pruned pine, within the gar-
den, references or mimics the windswept form of a distant pine. Cochrans gardens do not mimic
natures forms but are constructs expressing human control and purpose, to be read against the
larger environment.
At Walden Studios, a place where artists can live and work, several large rectangular plinths
reach out like fingers into the agricultural valley, where row after row of grape vines extend into the
golden foothills. The plinths, raised four feet above the valley floodplain, pivot around the existing
building in a geometric dance quite unlike the orderly rows of vines. Scaled to mediate between
the human context and the setting at-large, the landscape centers the individual in a vast, verdant
agricultural valley. The overlap between context and garden is further strengthened by the use of
materials and colors that echo those of the valley and hills. Cor-ten steel repeats the earthy tones
of the soil beneath the vines; walls composed of locally quarried stone mimic the old border walls
between valley farms; and gnarled olive trees respond to the horizontally spreading oaks in the
distant foothills.
Science offers several possible reasons for the sense of comfort found in Californias valley-
foothill landscape. Over the past half century, evolutionary biologists have pondered whether
humans are hardwired to prefer certain landscapes. Research indicates that people feel comfort-
able in savannahs, where open grassy vistas with scattered trees allow for both prospect and
refuge, attributes identified by Jay Appleton as necessary to human survival.4 Prospect and refuge
would have been particularly important to travelers loping across broad plains and over gen-
tly swelling hills, scanning for the presence of predators and prey. Environmental psychologists
Kaplan and Kaplan tested scenic preferences across cultures and found that the savannah is pre-
ferred above all other landscapes, with the exception of ones native or familiar landscape.5 Other
studies appear to confirm it as a preferred typology. The native California valley-foothill region,
where much of Cochrans work is located, is a savannahlike setting of rolling hills and spreading
trees. Cochran brings our attention to it but does not imitate its form. Instead, she uses geometry
for contrast and to intensify ones experience of distant vistas.
For Cochran, the geometric composition is first conceptualized as relationships of mass and
void. It is then developed by layering materials, much as a painter builds with oil. The underlying
structure may be simple and austere, but successive layers of gravel, concrete, and steel create a
kind of lamina. A rich coat of plants overlays all: thick masses of ground cover, slender tree trunks,
 15

and blocks of lively grasses. Collectively, the materialseach positioned to define space yet honed
to bring out its own charactercontribute to the overall harmony. This makes for a sense of right-
ness, while also fostering wonder and surprise at the unexpected nexus of sharp geometries and
vibrant plant life. This same sense of wonder is awakened by the swelling and stretching of cubes
and planes reaching out to interlock, frame, or contrast with the naturalistic landscape beyond.

D esi g n Pr o cess
Cochran is intuitive. She responds to her feelings about the site and the clients hopes, per-
ceptions, and functional needs while drawing subconsciously (as Dewey describes) on remark-
able spaces that she has experienced, such as classic French landscapes or Barragans work in
Mexico City.6 As an innately visual person, she is moved by images of beautiful places and by art.
Although she does not articulate how she arrives at a design, investigating her process in detail
provides insights related to outcomes, and these insights may contribute to the general body of
knowledge of landscape architecture.
Both art and art theory have been influential upon her work. Indeed, art theory generally
holds more relevance for landscape architects than architectural theory, because of its emphasis
on feelings and experience. Cochran is in agreement with Irwin, who calls for a paring away of
intellectual biases, in favor of direct experience: a realm where feelings are the equal of intellect,
and beauty the equal of truth.7 Irwins career has moved in a kind of inverse direction compared
to Cochrans. Eschewing conventional landscape form, she enters the world of sculpture through
her gardens. Irwin came to gardens from the fine arts, specifically painting and sculpture, media
with which he had great success but found limited possibilities for engaging experience.
Gardens affect nearly all of the human senses, stimulating the brain and eliciting pleasure.8
This may partly explain the appeal of any well-executed garden; however, when a landscape is
thoughtfully designed and coherent, and when its materials support spatial integrity, experience
is always maximized. Classic landscapes endure because they are artistic expressions that cross
cultures and eras. Dewey wrote that such art enters into the experiences of others and enables
them to have more intense, fully rounded out experiences of their own.9 The sense that one is
inside of a work of artin which forms, material, and expression transcend timeis evident in
Cochrans best work, such as Walden Studios or the Perry Residence. The forms and proportions
are clean, powerful, and timeless. Each detail is appropriate to the whole. An interplay of planes
and elements keeps the eye alert and scanning. A powerful coherent structure soothes and calms.
Space and openness are balanced with object and intimate detail.
16

Cochrans process parallels that of a fine artist in its reliance on intuition, methodical devel-
opment, and analysis of an idea. Rodin described a project as beginning with an intense feeling.
As he developed the piece, he would employ analytical assessments. Later, he would once more
abandon himself to feeling, modifying his plan accordingly.10 In Rodins final assessment of the
work, feeling trumped reason. Cochrans process is similar. She gains a powerful feeling from the
site, which she assesses in light of the clients functional requirements and artistic sensibilities.
She considers how this human (her client) should exist within the landscape and begins to assess
potential forms, drawing from mental files of art that she has either seen in person or viewed
in photographs, to develop a picture of the feeling or atmosphere that needs to be conveyed.
Observing the client within his or her own surroundings is important to her. This attention to telling
details is particularly evident in the Ward Residence. While visiting the client at home, she noticed
the absence of furniture. He lived in a minimalist, almost monklike way. She found the art on his
walls sophisticated, edgy, and provocative, but not conventionally beautiful. She wanted to cre-
ate for him something powerful and spatial but also serene. The design was achieved through an
economy of means, a few varieties of plants, sculpted planes of grass, and a wall of filmy acrylic.
Cochran often develops her designs through back-and-forth site visits and studio work.
When sketching in the studio, she feels less constrained and is able to reflect on her impressions
of the site, as she attempts to distill its character. Returning to the field (sketches in hand) she
judges the concept. Her strongest designs have emerged from this fluid process.
Cochrans office is a large, light-filled loft overlooking Pier 70, the last working waterfront
in San Francisco. It is an atelier in the traditional sense. No partitions or walls separate the desks.
The administrative assistant may sit next to a project designer, who sits across from an apprentice.
Cochrans own desk mingles snugly amidst those of her employees. She circulates among the
designers, answering questions and pausing to make a new sketch or discuss a plant choice. Her
design-build work from earlier in her career continues to inform her approach, and it is apparent
in the large amount of office space given over to material samples. Much of her work is sculptural
and tactile, and she likes to see materials next to one another to make judgments. Her studio
contains samples of many different types of stone, wood, metal fabric mesh, bolts and fasteners,
plastics and acrylics, woods, and colored concretes and gravels.
Various means are used to develop the design: hand sketches, computer software, and
models. Cochran uses full-scale mockups to review and refine proportions and materials. A paver
might be drawn on the office floor; the proportions between stepping stones worked out; the
thickness of pool coping or height of a wall assessed. She evaluates colors as well as textures
in association, and she studies thicknesses to determine the relative chunkiness and weight of
 17

materials. Should something be one-quarter-inch or one-eighth-inch thick? How will it look next
to something else? What will be the overall effect of the space?
Sometimes she folds and glues a piece of cardboard to create a step with a recessed light.
Three of these might be stacked and then viewed to determine how much tread cantilever is nec-
essary for the stairs to appear to float. Reviewing mockups and material options is also helpful for
clients and apprentices. Knowledgeable about (and perhaps a little bored with) traditional mate-
rials, Cochran explores a gardens potential by asking, what materials outside the conventional
wood, masonry, and standard plant palette can be used? Is steel a possible substitute for a stone
retaining wall? Why or why not? More often, the question focuses on why not. The language of
materials is all-important, because it must also support the composition.

Light
Theorists maintain that light can be used in three ways: as a focal glow, as ambient luminescence,
and through a play of brilliants.11 Focal glow is concentrated, like a shaft of sunlight. Ambient
luminescence is diffuse and softly fills an entire sky or space. Cochran uses this form of lighting
most consistently, often creating a planar glow. Occasionally, she uses focal glow or accent to
highlight a path, as in the linear strips on the ground plane at Walden Studios. Brilliants describe
a type of effect derived from the crystal facets of a chandelier, where light is actively and brilliantly
bounced into a space. Cochran uses this concept only occasionally and in deft ways. For example,
sunlight reflecting off the face of faceted stone or from the sides of gravel can increase light within
a volume of space.
Light is consciously used as a design element in all of her projects. It is integral to the com-
position, managing and strengthening sculptural qualities or directing attention to the external
world. Vertical panels of acrylic or sandblasted glass are used to capture sunlight in the gardens
of the Brookvale and Ward residences, as well as at the Portland Art Museum. The panels may
Ward Residence, command attention as white-hot planes during one part of the day and become soft grayish-blue
Palo Alto, California backdrops at another. As the day fades and their prominence wanes, other elements come to the
fore, affecting ones perception of the overall space.
Panels and walls are used as scrims, especially in places where the external world does
not offer positive views. Adopted from theater, these translucent screens are useful in affecting
perception and adding a sense of mystery. At the Ward Residence, Cochran devised a translu-
cent acrylic wall fronted by black bamboo as a scrim to mask the view of an imposing building.
The wall is permeable and suggestive, diffusing sunlight into the space. Culms of bamboo are
visible to about four feet above ground and then branch out thickly to screen the view. The effect
18

of the border changes with the angle of the sun or the presence of clouds at various times of
the day, with the translucent wall creating a shadow-box effect against which the dark bamboo
leaves play.
Sunlight, used in association with plants, accentuates compositional qualities. A band of var-
iegated Japanese silver grass dissolves sunlight at the Brookvale Residence. Likewise, tall blowsy
grasses in the Hayes Valley Roof Garden are positioned at the edge of the terrace, creating a gold
border between the cityscape and garden and calling attention to the presence of the sun and
wind in the manmade world of urban San Francisco. Visual connections to the external world are
also present in nighttime views. At the Hayes Valley Roof Garden, an amber line of light leads
out to the cityscape. At Walden Studios, Cor-ten pavement gleams with regular bars of white in
the gravel dining court. The light is picked up again in vertical form at the opening of the garden
walls, guiding the eye to the vineyard and dark foothills.
Lighting a garden at night extends its period of usefulness. Cochran uses it sparingly and
deliberately to avoid light pollution and enhance compositional quality. She rarely uses overhead
lights and tries, at all costs, to avoid posts and light standards. The garden at the Perry Residence
demonstrates the effectiveness of light used as an accent, capable of drawing attention to diurnal
change. In the deepening dusk of twilightwhen day moves to night and shadows gathersoft
blue bands of light glimmer in the garden. At first, they are almost indecipherable from the pale
gray evening hues, where decomposed granite, plants, and concrete block begin to look alike.
As the evening draws on, the blue grows stronger, becoming bars of pure clear cerulean in an
otherwise dark setting.
Cochran uses light to reinforce spatial volume, similar to the way artist Fred Sandback used
thin strands of yarn as room edges. A belt of light circles a terrace at Walden Studios, cupping
the velvety black space. A different, more diffused effect was developed for the garden at the
Perry Residence, Portland Art Museum, where bars of light spread softly up the tall glass walls, enveloping the visi-
San Francisco, California tor with a sense of warmth and dispelling the gloom of the rainy northwest. Hidden ground lights
tucked beneath the bases of plinths cause these solid masses to appear to float. This disjunction,
between what appears to be true and what the mind knows to be impossible, is intriguing. The
visitor pauses to gaze intently at the composition, where heavy plinths hover light as handker-
chiefs, poised to drift away at any moment.

Someone may not be able to tell you
why a garden is unappealing, due to
the interjection of the wrong color
green, but they would feel it was ugly
or unattractive. Getting it right is
essential.
Andrea Cochran, January 24, 2008
19
A ppr o ach to Co lo r and Planting D esi gn
Color in Cochrans designs is conceptualized in conjunction with light, as it influences perception
of hue, brightness, and depth. For example, when the sun backlights grasses of red, gold, or pur-
ple, it intensifies their warm undertones. Color is also used to support compositional legibility and
to heighten emotional qualities. Quiet, calming hues are used as broad-brush undercoats. The
predominant colors are reddish brown Cor-ten steel; gray in varying degrees of warmth or cold-
ness in stone, concrete, or gravel; and green plants.12 Cor-ten evokes a sense of the iron found
in soil. It is never used as a ceiling element but grows from the earth in retaining walls and steps.
Black concrete is used close to the ground, as seat walls that sit on top of the soil. Gravel, lawn, or
ground covers are used as low planes. Usually, these surfaces incorporate muted grays and greens
to harmonize with neighboring landscapes. While Cochrans abstract geometry may differ, color
allows the composition to blend with preexisting adjacencies. Accents are used in precise ways,
ensuring sympathy with the overall scheme.
Planting design is one of the most complicated aspects of Cochrans work. The range of
plant colors, especially green, is nearly limitless and requires extensive knowledge of plant spe-
cies and cultivars. In dealing with green, she considers multiple shades and how they will affect
the entire composition. Associative greens are carefully balanced. Blue-green and chartreuse, for
example, play off one another and are good in combination. Pale and yellowish greens contrast
with dark colors and help lighten shady areas.
Each projects plant palette is honed for maximum spatial and painterly effect. Color, form,
and textural qualities are reviewed to understand how plants, individually and en masse, support
the composition. Color choice is affected by microclimate and architecture. The ample and bright
direct sunlight of the San Francisco Bay Peninsula brings resonance to warm colors, whereas the
citys moodier areas and urban shade call for cooler palettes. Plant texture, height, weight, soil,
and climatic requirements must also be taken into consideration. Color and planting design are
particular strengths of Cochrans. Her masterful approach to plants sets her work apart from envi-
ronmental artists, just as her austere compositions are distinctive among landscape architects.
Planting design is painterly in that it uses texture, color, and form to create complex visual
relationships. Plants are alive and dynamic. They have varying horticultural requirements. They
consistently renew the composition. Cochran structures her designs to trigger fresh views upon
subsequent visits. Attention can shift, depending on which plant or group of plants is emphasized.
One season, concentration may focus on a certain grass; at another time, it may focus on the bare
structure of a deciduous tree. A plane of ground cover is highlighted with soft yellow flowers in
spring, and a bosque of trees with fiery red leaves captures ones attention in fall.
 20
I am trying to guide the composition as
best as I can at the outset. It is a living
thing and, at a certain point, it takes on
a life of its own. Eventually, I no longer
have control. I accept that.
Andrea Cochran, January 24, 2008
Hayes Valley Roof Garden,
San Francisco, California
Each project has an individualized color palette. Once the undercoat has been determined,
color overlays are developed. Green may be overlaid with silver; bronze with aubergine or yellow;
brown with red or gold; and gray with brown or blue. Walden Studios, with its large gravel courtyards,
is a study in grays, olives, and browns. The dull, nonreflective gravel is appropriate for a climate that
can be blazingly hot in summer. The gravel planes remain consistent and static, directing attention
toward seasonal color changes, from green to gold, of the valley and foothills. In a landscape of this
size, nothing should stand out too much or distract from the larger setting. Local stone was used for
the retaining walls. Its warm brown color matches the soil of surrounding fields. Silvery gray olives
respond to the color of the gravel. A bosque of pears alludes to the valleys orchard heritage, the
days when each spring brought an almost overwhelming blossoming of plum trees.
The palette of the Perry Residence is a cool bluish green, because the natural light coming
into this north-facing site is also cool. Satin-finished stainless steel was selected to capture and
reflect the sky. Its smoothness contrasts with the coarse gravel used for pathways. Himalayacalamus
hookerianus (Himalayan blue bamboo) lines one edge of the property. Dusted naturally with bluish-
white powder, the young culms will fade to green with age. Their cool blue responds to the cobalt
lights and steel edging. Birch is a plant that conveys the sense of cool northern light. Its white bark
stands out in the shady garden. The black concrete seat walls contrast with the birch trees and pale
gray gravel, balancing light with dark.
The Hayes Valley Roof Gardens palette is derived from the silvery blue undercoat of its
succulents. Constrained by weight considerations, the garden uses lightweight materials such
as aluminum, acrylic, and shallow-rooted succulents. The silver hue is repeated in the mill-finish
aluminum flooring and planters. Its lightness is picked up in the milky acrylic wall. Essentially, the
plants act as bars of soft colorwashed with pink, purple, or bronzethat play off one another
like chords of music in a jazz composition. Sunlight enhances the hue of golden grasses at the
edge of the rooftop, complementing and refracting off the icy blue undertone of succulents.
The graphic legibility of the Childrens Garden is due, in large part, to its mostly green
color scheme. Instead of neutral gray gravel, a yellowish-green lawn is used for paths. Swaths of
Sutera Snowstorm (snowstorm bacopa) and Sutera Gold n Pearls (gold n pearls bacopa) form
a massed ground cover, contrasting slightly with the verdant lawn. Golden bacopa occurs in one
section, white in another. The plants have a uniform and tightly knit texture, which constrains the
strength of the colors. If the same colors were used with boldly textured tall plants, the effect
would be more rambunctious. The purple-red hue of the twig-covered slide and earthy tone of the
Cor-ten steel are weighted with a brightness that holds the composition in balance.

Like an artist who paints, practices,
and sketches, a landscape architect
needs to spend years learning which
plants do well in different soils and
microclimates. I must remember all
these qualities: the form and color of
the plant, especially the hue of green;
the requirements of light, water, and
soil; and the feeling I am trying to
create.
Andrea Cochran, June 3, 2007
What is interesting about planting
design is that it is like painting without
paint or sculpting without clay. It is all
done in your mind; it is your memory
of what a plant looks like and how it
appears, juxtaposed against another
plant.
Andrea Cochran, December 29, 2007
21
The I mpo rtance o f Plants
Northern California has many microclimates, accommodating a multitude of possible plant pal-
ettes. To master its subtleties, a designer must work there for several years. Cochrans design-
build experience cemented her knowledge of regional plants, because if certain species did not
survive or flourish, she was held accountable. She pared down her palette to plants that she knew
would succeed as living design elements, and she evaluated environmental strategies to ensure
their survival. Concerned with the long-term health and viability of the land, she prefers not to
use Roundup or other chemicals that affect soil and animals. Lawn is used sparingly, due to the
inordinate amounts of energy, fertilizer, and water necessary to keep it in a perpetually juvenile
state. From an aesthetic perspective, an emerald green lawn is a demanding color. Too much of it
can throw the composition out of balance.
As Cochran designs a garden, she views plants as elements to support spatial structure. For
blocks or planes, she favors tall grass meadows over shrubs, because unless shrubs are sheared,
they appear as discrete elements calling attention to themselves. Trees are used en masse in
alles, bosques, or scrims. Trees set in alles or placed as specimens may also be used to frame or
extend a view of the landscape. A favored choice is Olea europaea (European olive). She likes its
craggy quality and weightiness, as well as its ability to anchor space. Unusual for an evergreen, its
leaves are light, thin, and silvery, lending a diaphanous quality that contrasts with its knobby bark
and heavy trunk. Cochran cautions against the use of invasive olives, such as Olea angustifolia
(Russian olive) and Olea umbellate (autumn olive). Another tree used as an individual is the Acer
palmatum (Japanese maple). Its small scale makes it a useful specimen within confined courtyard
spaces. Cochran finds the tree appealing for its graceful, sculptural form and its smooth, interest-
ing bark. Unlike the olive, it has seasonal interest. The leaves turn brilliant red in autumn. After
they drop, its spreading form stands out. New leaves emerge in spring in an unusual combination
of red-tinged green.
Clients are encouraged to recognize that care is required to maintain a garden or its effect
will be ephemeral. Cochran has responded pragmatically to the lack of a well established horticul-
tural tradition in the United States by choosing plants that are easy to maintain but have maximum
impact. Instead of a hedge, which requires shearing, feeding, and pruning, she uses tall grasses
to shape space. In doing so, she has discovered additional qualities that they contribute to the
landscape, such as movement and allusion to wind.
Cochran admires Equisetum hyemale (horsetail) because of its extremely upright architec-
tural form and its crisp legibility when planted en masse. She forewarns, however, that its roots
are extremely invasive and, if not contained, will take over the entire garden. She tends to use
 22
If it were a clipped hedge, it would be
very static, but when you are out there,
the grasses are moving. The taller
grasses are moving differently than the
shorter grasses. That is pretty dramatic;
it adds a layer that a photo cannot
capturethe sensual quality of being
on the site.
Andrea Cochran, October 8, 2007
it in blocks or cubes, surrounded by concrete or another barrier. Pleioblastus pygmae (dwarf
bamboo) and lower grasses may be useful for smaller spaces. She cautions that bamboo variet-
ies with running roots must be contained. She uses a three-foot-deep root barrier with overlaps.
Succulents are appreciated for their interesting sculptural textures, forming a tapestry in which
some individuals dominate others in a mass, giving quirkiness to a monoculture planting. Strongly
structured plants, such as Acanthus mollis (bears breeches), Gunnera manicata (giant rhubarb),
and Phormium tenax Rubra (New Zealand flax) are used for emphasis.
Cochran is moved by plants. She wants us to be moved by them, too. She loves them for
their capacity to connect us with the cosmosthe sun, rain, soil, and seasons. Her objective is to
distill and intensify a feeling of wonder by selecting plants with evocative forms, nuanced color,
or heady fragrances. She positions plants for compositional purposes and to shape space but also
to call our attention to the beauty of the individual as it repeats over and over, slightly different in
its genetic makeup but part of a comprehensive population. The ephemeral, organic qualities of
plants enter a dialectic with the enduring firmness of stone, concrete, and steel to emphasize the
fleeting beauty of life.
B uilt M aterials
Built or static materials form the geometric skeleton of Cochrans designs. Cor-ten steel, concrete,
stone, acrylic, and glass are her materials of choice for sculpting and enriching space. She strives
to bring out the inherent character of each material and to consider how it contributes to the
composition. Philosopher George Santayana wrote that the effective use of material enhances
form and raises the latter to a higher power.13 Materiality heightens the sensuous qualities of
a composition, giving it a pervasive beauty and intensifying human experience. An example of
the connection between material and form is found in Richard Serras sculpture at Dia:Beacon,
in upstate New York, an installation in which giant cylinders, caves, and cones are shaped using
nothing but huge, thick pieces of Cor-ten steel. The steel is tactile and earthen; it suggests great
strength. One cannot conceive of the form in any other material. It has an inexorable appropriate-
ness that enhances and heightens the aesthetic experience.
S teel
Out of necessity, Cochran began to experiment with Cor-ten in the mid-1990s. Working with the
very steep and narrow site of the Childrens Garden, she needed something strong, resilient, and
slender for the retaining walls. A material was required that would harmonize with the color of the
soil, otherwise it would stand out too much in the small space. Cor-ten was selected because it
 23

had the capacity for great strength but was also thin (about a half-inch thick). It lent an interest-
ing quality to the design. Graphically, the composition is an optical illusion. When you look down
on the garden from the house, the steel disappears and the landscape appears flat. Only when
you move into the space and face it frontally does its full verticality become apparent. The iron-
colored sheets rise from the ground to support the terraces, ramps, and landings.
At the Peninsula Residence, the potential for making a sculptural statement was explored
through the use of freestanding Cor-ten walls that change in texture and color over time. Lively
black shadows from nearby oak leaves project onto the velvety surface. The positions and opac-
Peninsula Residence, ities of the shadows vary with the diurnal passage of the sun, as does Cor-tens color, which
Hillsborough, California changes from deep aubergine in morning to a warm rusty brown in late afternoon, returning to a
purplish undertone in evening.

Gravel
Gravel is used as a carpeted ground plane, because it has a large degree of uniformity but also
offers texture. Visitors can pick up a handful of stones and sift them through their fingers while
walking along. There is liveliness to the faceted surface of each stone, which can refract light dif-
ferently depending on its type and the time of day. The surface is permeable, allowing rainwater
to drain through, and it reflects less heat back into the atmosphere than asphalt does. (Asphalt is
ubiquitous in the United States and has different environmental and aesthetic qualities.) In parking
courtyards, like the one at Walden Studios, gravel initiates the experience of being in a unique
setting. Stepping out of the car, the visitors foot sinks slightly into the gravel. There is something
soothing about experiencing a soft crunch underfoot while walking from the parking courtyard to
the terraced garden. Cochran assesses gravel for its tactile and auditory qualities, as well as for its
color, shape, and reflectiveness.

Sto ne and Co ncrete walls

Masonry walls are firmly decisive in their ability to contain and define space. Cochran prefers
sharp definition and straight walls with clearly articulated edges. Stones are often selected from
local quarries for their ability to blend with the larger setting beyond the compositions edges.
For walls, stones that break naturally in rectangular fractures are preferred, as they will appear
natural but also provide the prerequisite angular character. Concrete is a favored material for its
malleability. It can be formed to almost any shape, color, or texture, and it can be used for walls,
seats, or walks. As with other materials, Cochran first determines its overall purpose and form and
then delves into the nuances of detail, such as color and texture. The Perry Gardens concrete seat
24

walls are chunky wedges that one can either sit or lie down on. The tops are polished smooth and
glistening, bringing sunlight into the space. The sides are textured and matte. These subtle varia-
tions add tactile and visual richness to an otherwise small garden.14

A crylic and Glass

Acrylic and glass are capable of promoting suggestiveness and mystery by mediating and dif-
fusing sunlight, making them good choices for scrims in tight urban spaces. Transparent glass
is sometimes used in Cochrans designs, but more frequently glass is tinted or sandblasted to
Hayes Valley Roof Garden, produce a hazy translucency. She uses acrylic panels to blur boundaries and to create permeable
San Francisco, California containers. Acrylic panels can make small spaces seem more expansive by capturing light, but not
views, from adjacent spaces.

c o nclusi o n
Cochrans landscapes offer insights into a designers mind. They are complex, layered, and rich
with nuance. Geometry, juxtaposition, pattern, edge, flow, and materiality are fused into lucid har-
mony. The result is an amplification of experience, in which one senses the designers capacity to
respond to nature through a combination of concentrated intellect and imagination. People who
experience her designs find them unique and beautiful. Recently, this has led to wider recognition
of her work. In 2006, she was a Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Awards finalist. In 2007, she won
the competition to design Allegheny Square, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Her work evokes more than one understanding.15 On the one hand, her deliberate composi-
tions elicit an appreciation of the human intellect and its capacity for rational thought and order. On
the other, they alert us to the potent forces that lie beyond human control. Precise geometry and
hand-wrought details speak of human intention. Plants, like natural forces, allude to that which can-
not be governedthe life-giving, nourishing capacity of the biosphere, where plants, soil, sun, air,
and water interact in ways still not wholly understood. Plants alert us to our own aliveness.
Cochran balances the two domains of the natural and the manmade with delicately cali-
brated compositions. Her work draws on principles of modern and classical landscape architec-
ture. Aspects of her approach can be gleaned in the abstract paintings of Burle Marx, the sculpted
volumes of Barragan, and the subtle carved planes of Le Notre. Burle Marx would begin his
designs of flowing landscapes with an abstract painting and proceed to paint it with colorful
native flora.16 Cochrans plans are also artistic compositions that, in some ways, are analogous to
the paintings of Burle Marx. Intentional spatial qualities and layering are embodied in her drawn
plans and then realized as formal elements that extrude into the third dimension. Although her
 25

designs are much more geometric, she shares his painterly approach, giving great care to color,
texture, and form. Likewise, she understands the capacity for plants to enchant us, as no other
material can.
Like Barragan, Cochran is able to convey a forceful sense of volumetric space. Solid masonry
walls and paved ground planes characterize Barragans courtyards. They evoke a sense of rigorous
human control. Cochrans gardens are less severe, because they convey permeability, as well as
containment. Enclosure is often suggestive, rather than absolute. Translucent panels or low stone-
walls allow light in and views out. Plants are used in conjunction with translucent scrims. Leaves
and branches counter the static quality of the built materials. With the winds help, they create
ever-changing patterned effects and air out the composition.
Cochran recognizes that there can be a coldness to stark geometry, which she seeks to
temper. In the entry sequence at the Brookvale Residence, the power of geometry is countered by
a meandering flow, intimately scaled details, and the enlivening presence of plants. In fact, plants
are used as cubic forms, which seems both a contradiction and a delight. Their vitality transitions
us into the geometry, making us more accepting of it.
Le Notres heroically scaled, bas-relief-like landscapes were sculpted out of the broad
woodlands of central France. A disciplined and authoritative axial geometry guides the visitor
through his compositions at Versailles and Vaux le Vicomte. Although Cochrans use of sculpted
ground planes is similar to Le Notres, her approach to circulation and composition is contem-
porary. Her spaces are organized to encourage greater choice of movement. Gravel planes at
Walden Studios, for example, spiral around the building, allowing visitors to choose their own
routes, each with varying views and resulting perceptions. Both designers reflect the spirit of the
times and the political and philosophical bents of their respective cultural periods. Walden Studios
expresses an acceptance of the multiple possibilities of individual experience and interpretation.
Vaux le Vicomte and Versaille are more linear and controlled. Attention is deliberately focused
on distant, singular views. At Vaux, the vast hidden and recessed canal comes as a magnificent
surprise, eliciting awe at Le Notres ability for optical control and pacing.17 Cochrans geometries
are much less forceful. They are attempts to organize and clarify space into a unified and compre-
hensible structure. The underlying framework is bracingly intentional and articulate, yet it tends
to provide neither a single deliberate path nor a prescribed experience. There are multiple pos-
sibilities within the rhythmic play of mass and void. The voids (paths) are particularly important
compositionally. They might be thought of as being similar to pauses in music, in which empty
space is considered full because of what is around it, informing it. Dewey described such pauses
as silence that propels the music forward.18 This suggestive quiet break is important in landscape
26

composition. In Cochrans work, it is found in paths and in larger voids, such as the soft gravel
plinths of Walden Studios or the meadow at Stone Edge Vineyard, where deliberately formed
and generously empty spaces relieve the eye and quiet the mind. These spatial pauses interact
with and play off of abstract geometries, setting up views for fostering different perceptions and
understandings of the composition and its relation to the outside world.
Cochrans more recent commissions establish a strong discourse with landscapes outside
of the garden. At Stone Edge Vineyard and Walden Studios, she captures as much as possible
of the distant landscape beyond her control and brings it into the garden, juxtaposing it with her
own design. An intersection of landscape is achieved through the use of sympathetic materials
with wholly different geometries. This contrast prompts us to pause and reflect. Crisp walls define
the edges at Walden Studios, where gravel plinths float like barges on the sea. At Stone Edge
Vineyard, a pyramid made of locally collected river stone lies like a sleeping lion, guarding the
outskirts of the property. Its low profile and hunkered-down position lets the eye wander to the
field and trees beyond. We experience Cochrans design and the surrounding landscape simulta-
neously and discretely.
Her creations elicit reverie, for they are artful borderlands between intimate geometric
space and the larger urban or rural context. They are like overlapping natural settings, where for-
est meets meadow or land meets sea. Something unusual happens at such intersections, wherein
each element is experienced in association with another. The mingling of scales and forms, the
rich materiality of each element within a harmonious whole, leaves an indelible impression upon
the mind. The imaginative fusing of intentionally austere geometry with vital, potent nature inten-
sifies our experience. Her designs make us feel the human capacity to both shape and celebrate
environment through artful design. Her most memorable projects, Walden Studios, the Perry
Residence, and Stone Edge Vineyard, are deeply felt communications with the spirit of place. In
the words of critic Elizabeth Kasslers, we feel here, here, in touch with its very essence.19
 27

no tes

1 John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Capricorn Books, 1958), 12223.
2
Peter Walker may be classified as postmodernist or minimalist. He was a professor at the Harvard Graduate
School of Design, where he encouraged his students, Cochran included, to study contemporary art alongside
landscape architecture.
3 People seem to appreciate a certain level of complexity in composition. Citing Gerda Smetss research regard-
ing highly complex compositions and brain arousal, biologist Edward O. Wilson identifies a relationship between
order, rhythm, complexity, and redundancy. Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: the Unity of Knowledge (New York:
Knopf, 1998).
4 Jay Appleton classifies landscapes in which people have unimpeded opportunities to see, as prospects. Landscapes
where people can hide are refuges. Appleton bases his argument on habitat theory, which postulates that aes-
thetic pleasure in landscape derives from the observer experiencing an environment favorable to the satisfaction of
his biological needs. Jay Appleton, The Experience of Landscape (Chichester and New York: Wiley, 1996), 66.
5
Rachel Kaplan, Stephen Kaplan, and Robert L. Ryan surveyed environmental preferences by asking people to rate
different scenes on photographs and slides using a five-point Likert scale. Thousands of ratings indicated that the
organization of space affects preference. Scenes that rated highly had spaced trees and smooth ground. The
combination. . . leads to a spatial configuration that seems to be highly favored. Rachel Kaplan, Stephen Kaplan,
and Robert L. Ryan, With People in Mind: Design and Management of Everyday Nature (Washington, D.C.: Island
Press, 1998), 1112.
6 Modernist landscape architect Thomas Church had a similar approach to design. Toward the end of his life, when
asked about his philosophy of design, he replied after some hesitation, My philosophy is that the client is usually
right....Church was an intuitive designer, unusually responsive to the demands and daydreams of each client, yet
responsive, too, to his own instincts for reaching the right solution, one that would appear inevitable, timeless.
Sometimes a particular formthe biomorphic shape of a pool, a sinuous line between path and lawn, the shadow of
an eave slicing across a gridded concrete terracewould recall a surrealist painting. Peter Walker and Melanie Simo,
Invisible Gardens: the Search for Modernism in the American Landscape (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994), 925.
7 Lawrence Weschler, Robert Irwin: Getty Garden (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002), 34.
8 Philosopher Frederick Turner points out that the sequential development of human senseswith touch, taste,
and smell developing first, then vision and hearinginforms our response to beauty. He states that higher
associated centers (of the brain) are most deeply connected to the emotional and somatic limbic system...They
are the final destination of all sensory information and they represent the summation of the whole brains work.
Frederick Turner, Beauty: the Value of Values (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991), 67.
9 The enduring art-product may have been, and probably was, called forth by something occasional, something
having its own date and place. But what was evoked is a substance so formed that it can enter into the experi-
ences of others and enable them to have more intense and more fully rounded out experiences of their own. This
is what it is to have form. It marks a way of envisaging, of feeling, and of presenting experienced matter so that
it most readily and effectively becomes material for the construction of adequate experience on the part of those
28

less gifted than the original creator. Hence there can be no distinction drawn, save in reflection, between form
and substance. John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Capricorn Books, 1958), 109.
10 Johannes Itten, The Elements of Color, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1970), 38.
11 Richard Kelly defined three types of light for design purposes. Marietta S. Millet, Light Revealing Architecture
(New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1996), 6.
12 There may be a biological preference for colors located in the middle of spectrum, such as greens, blues, and
browns. Science has established that humans and other animals are most sensitive to the blue-green region of
the visible spectrum. Richard Held and Whitman Richards write about the effects of radiation on life, as well as
that of light entering Earths atmosphere. Until the recent depletion of the ozone layer, most radiation entering
Earths atmosphere was in the blue-green range (500 millimicrons), which is most conducive to life. This sensitivity
to blue-green wavelengths may indicate an inherent predilection for colors occurring in nature. The presence of
green plants and blue water in an environment indicates that it is congenial to survival. Gardens containing these
elements may thus be innately preferred, and nearly all contain some living plants. But other colors, such as that
of soil, may also be preferable, signaling a place where plants can grow. Much more needs to be learned regard-
ing color preferences across different time spans and cultures. Richard Held and Whitman Richards, Perception,
Mechanisms, and Models: Readings from Scientific American (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1972), 367.
13 George Santayana writes about the importance of material to a work of art: If then...we ignore the materials of
things, and attend only to their form, we miss an ever-present opportunity to heighten our effects. For whatever
delight the form may bring, the material might have given delight already, and so much would have been gained
towards the value of the total result. George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outline of Aesthetic
Theory (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), 778.
14 Cochran enjoys collaborating with craftsman Pascual Castillo. His expertise with masonry and metalwork and
his willingness to try new techniques have inspired Cochrans trust, motivating her to challenge the possibilities
of materials. We have worked together for so long, there is almost a shorthand communication between us. I
frequently ask his opinion in the early stages of design to cross-check my ideas. Andrea Cochran, conversation
with author, January 24, 2008.
15 Philosopher Frederick Turner writes, Beauty has about it the quality of inexhaustibility, of depth. It connects to where

we are, and indeed evokes our whole past. . . but it also goes on from that ancient place to some new and transform-
ing experience Frederick Turner, Beauty: the Value of Values (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991), 2.
16 His gardens begin as painted plans. Valerie Fraser, Cannibalizing Le Corbusier: The MES Gardens of Roberto
Burle Marx, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 59, no. 2 (June 2000): 184.
17 Allen Weiss has written about the influence of the science of optics on Le Notres design at Vaux le Vicomte.

Allen S. Weiss, Mirrors of Infinity: The French Formal Garden and Seventeenth Century Metaphysics (New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 1995), 50.
18 A pause in music is not a blank, but is rhythmic silence that punctuates what is done while at the same time it
conveys an impulsion forward, instead of arresting at the point which it defines. John Dewey, Art as Experience
(New York: Capricorn Books, 1958), 172.
19 Elizabeth Kassler, Modern Gardens and the Landscape (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1964), 67.
 29

Biblio graphy

Appleton, Jay. The Experience of Landscape. Chichester and New York: Wiley, 1996.

Dewey, John. Art as Experience. New York: Capricorn Books, 1958.

Fraser, Valerie. Cannibalizing Le Corbusier: The MES Gardens of Roberto Burle Marx. The Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians 59, no. 2 (June 2000): 180193.

Held, Richard and Whitman Richards. Perception, Mechanisms, and Models: Readings from Scientific American. San
Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1972.

Itten, Johannes. The Elements of Color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1970.

Kaplan, Rachel, Stephen Kaplan, and Robert Ryan. With People in Mind: Design and Management of Everyday Nature.
Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998.

Kassler, Elizabeth. Modern Gardens and the Landscape. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1964.

Millet, Marietta S. Light Revealing Architecture. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1996.

Santayana, George. The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outline of Aesthetic Theory. New York: Dover Publications, 1955.

Smets, Gerda. Aesthetic Judgment and Arousal: An Experimental Contribution to Psycho-Aesthetics. Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 1973.

Treib, Marc, ed. Modern Landscape Architecture: A Critical Review. London and Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 1973.

Treib, Marc. Church, Eckbo, Halprin, and the Modern Urban Landscape. Birnbaum, Charles A., Jane Brown Gillette, and
Nancy Slade, eds. Preserving Modern Landscape Architecture II: Making Postwar Landscapes Visible. Washington,
D.C.: Spacemaker Press, 2004.

Turner, Frederick. Beauty: the Value of Values. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1991.

Walker, Peter and Melanie Simo. Invisible Gardens: the Search for Modernism in the American Landscape. Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 1994.

Weiss, Allen S. Mirrors of Infinity: The French Formal Garden and Seventeenth Century Metaphysics. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1995.

Weschler, Lawrence. Robert Irwin: Getty Garden. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002.

Wilson, Edward O. Consilience: the Unity of Knowledge. New York: Knopf, 1998.
Walden Studi o s

Location: Alexander Valley, California

Site area: 6 acres

Completion date: 2007

Cochran finds raw beauty in agricultural landscapes where the purposeful arrangement of a few
simple materials conveys a sense of order. Soil, grapevines, and trees are the essential elements
of the Alexander Valley, where Walden Studios is sited. Stone terraces lift the garden above the
floodplain. Conceived as plinths and carved as bas-relief-like planes, the terraces appear to pivot
around the fulcrum of the existing building, formerly a prune packinghouse. The property was
purchased with the intention of creating a studio for artists in residence to develop and display
their work. The terraces include an outdoor dining area, reception space for art openings, and a
bocce ball court.
The experience of pure geometric space is heightened by a reductionist palette: stone,
steel, gravel, lawn, and trees. Shrubs and other middle-height plants are eschewed. Instead,
plinths floating bargelike above the vineyard emphasize the ground plane, while stonewalls
contain carpets of lawn or gravel. Views are generally open and responsive to the external valley-
foothill vista. Carefully placed rubble at the base of the walls appears animated, like breaking Plants

waves. The horizontality of the composition is balanced by the strategic placement of trees. Great Beschorneria yuccoides

gnarled olives, positioned at the corners, anchor the rectangular spaces. Their organic contorted Festuca mairei

forms contrast with the terraces geometry and the regularity of distant vineyards. A bosque of Furcraea foetida

pear trees hearkens to the days when the valley was replete with orchards. Their autumn color and Morus alba Fruitless

spring blossoms bring a sense of ephemerality and change to an otherwise timeless landscape. Muhlenbergia lindheimeri

Olea europaea Sevillano

Parthenocissus tricuspidata

Platanus x acerifolia Bloodgood

Pyrus calleryana Aristocrat

Pyrus fauriei Korean Sun

Stipa gigantea
 31

The landscape and architecture represent a permeable relationship.

32
 33

Precisely fitted stone walls create a datum around the project.

34

Specimen olives anchor the planar landscape.

 35

A bocce ball court is elevated above the vineyards.

36
37
38

Courtyard with gravel rings for wheelchair access

 39

A reflecting pool creates a seamless plane.

40

0 50ft.

Plan of Walden Studios

N

0 50ft.
41
42

A Cor-ten ramp is lit from below by narrow slits with hidden LED lights.
43
Br oo kvale Residence

Location: Hillsborough, California

Site area: acre

Completion date: 2003

In the Brookvale Residence, a series of thoughtfully considered gestures orchestrate movement

through the landscape. The visitors journey begins with a sense of disorientation, as the predictable
suburban environs are left behind with the click of the garden door. You meander up an entry path,
through blocks of densely planted horsetail. Tall reedy stems surround you, obscuring views of Plants

the arrival courtyard and front door. Cochrans intent was to create a mazelike experience, where Acer palmatum

you must find, almost feel, your way to the destination, focusing closely on the smooth white Anemone x hybrida

pavement underfoot and brushing against the dark upright plants. Unaware of being led by the Chimonobambusa quadrangularis

path, you arrive at a small courtyard planted with Japanese maples, the heart of the interior, to Cyperus papyrus

find water bubbling up through a cube of cool limestone. The courtyards height and depth are Equisetum hyemale

roughly equal, resulting in a calmly reassuring space, like the rooms of a Palladian villa. Euphorbia amygdaloides Mrs. Robbs bonnet

The datum of the house is set by the elevation of the courtyard and extends outward, Ginkgo biloba Fairmont

encompassing the large pool terrace, which floats approximately twenty inches above grade. By Hakonechloa macra

holding the exterior terrace at this consistent elevation, the viewer is positioned high enough to Helleborus argutifolius

see into the distance, eclipsing views of the middle ground and capturing views of the neighboring Juncus patens

golf course. Lonicera hildebrandiana

The design eliminates the need for steps between the front entry, courtyard, and pool Magnolia x soulangeana

terrace. A gently sloping path and the repetition of limestone pavement inside and outside of the Miscanthus sinensis Morning Light

house result in a seamless integration of interior and exterior. The easy flow allows attention to Miscanthus transmorrisonensis

focus on the sensory and compositional aspects of the garden. The journey prompts an unusual Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens

sequence of feelings: disorientation, calm, and finally, meditative absorption in the distant Phormium tenax Atropurpureum

prospect seen from the terrace. Phyllostachys nigra

Pleioblastus pygmaea

Quercus agrifolia

Zelkova Serrata

Opposite: The pool terrace was designed to preserve the existing oak tree.
45
46
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Feng Shui principles dictate the meandering entry path of horsetails.

48

0 10ft.

Plan of Brookvale Residence

0 10ft.
49
50
51
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An open, vine-covered trellis screens the central courtyard.

54

Limestone paving creates a datum through the house and to the pool terrace.
55
Childrens Garden

Location: San Francisco, California

Site area: 2,600 sq. ft.

Completion date: 2002

The intention of the Childrens Garden is to evoke the magical experience of childhood, when fan-
tasy is felt more intensely than reality. Journeys, even small passages, can be fraught with danger
or exhilaration. In this garden, a child can zoom down a willow-covered slide while reaching out
to touch a silky smooth branch. A thickly woven tunnel is lit from within by glowing phosphores-
cent cable, which adds to the sense of enchantment. Nearly all of the elements within the garden
support interaction and physical activity. Zigzag paths are meant to be run up and down. A soft,
grass-covered seat, large enough for more than one child, can be clambered on for rest, a quiet
chat, or a view out. Great airy willow balls can be tossed about. Cochran promotes the thrill of
imaginative experiences through the use of real materials, such as the handwoven willow branches
springing alive with green leaves and carpets of flowering bacopa ground cover.
Another goal of the design is to conjure illusion and disbelief. Bold diagonals of white,
yellow, and green ground covers appear flat when viewed from above, belying the sites 40 per-
cent slope. From the bottom of the hill, one sees thin sheets of Cor-ten steel rising up to contain
sculptural ramps and terraces, heightening the illusory effect.

Plants

Abutilon hybrida

Alchemilla mollis

Clematis armandii

Clematis Lady Northcliffe

Rosa Sally Holmes

Salix caprea Pendula

Sutera Gold n Pearls

Sutera Snowstorm

Opposite: Angled planes of sculptural Cor-ten steel reveal the dimensional quality of the garden.
57
58
 59

A willow-covered slide acts as a screen.

60

0 10ft.

Plan of Childrens Garden

N

0 10ft.
 61

From above, the surface appears planar.

62

A woven wattle fence defines the top of the garden.

63
64
65
P erry Residence

Location: San Francisco, California

Site area: 2,200 sq. ft.

Completion date: 2006

The expansion of an existing townhouse and the purchase of a neighboring house and lot were
the impetus for the design of the Perry Residence landscape. The clients viewed the garden as an
opportunity to express an exciting sense of expansiveness gained from the newly acquired space.
Many of the garden elements are reflective, further enlarging the setting by bringing additional
light into the north-facing site. The garden is primarily concerned with creating a view to be seen
from the homes top two floors, where the living room, kitchen, and dining areas are located.
Cochran concluded that the design needed a strong graphic legibility when viewed from above
but must also foster intrigue and encourage exploration when experienced at ground level. A
series of paths link to form a modern labyrinth, which can be experienced physically on foot or
mentally when viewed from above.
The garden is a study in blues, blacks, grays, and greens. Elements are massed in blocks
and bars of color that slide past each other in geometric conversation. Black concrete seatwalls
form bars that pause and start, guiding movement through the garden. Soft gray gravel pours
between them, its matte texture contrasting with the polished tops of the seatwalls. Blocks of Plants

white anemones form airy masses above slender green stems. Bamboo creates a vertical privacy Acer palmatum

screen that moves in the wind. The rustling of sharp leaves buffers exterior noise and contributes Anemone x hybrida Honorine Joubert

to the sense of seclusion. Betula utilis var. jacquemontii

Luminescence is brought into the garden through the use of reflective materials. Bands Helleborus orientalis

of stainless steel serve as edging to contain gravel and border plants, or they emerge from the Heuchera maxima

ground as stair risers. The satiny finish is softly reflective, set off by the dullness of the gravel; Himalayacalamus hookerianus

while the glasslike quality of the highly polished bench tops contrasts with their roughened matte Narcissus Ice Follies

sides. When it rains and during a misty fog, the bench tops mirror the sky and adjacent branches Narcissus Avalon

of Japanese maple trees. Sasa pygmaea

Zantedeschia aethiopica

Opposite: Historical labyrinths inspire the sliding composition of concrete walls and stainless steel bars.
67
68

Opposite: Stainless steel stairs take up the sites three-and-a-half-inch grade change.
69
70

Architectural intention was translated to ideas of expansiveness and creativity.

71
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0 10ft.

N
Plan of Perry Residence

0 10ft.
 77

Cobalt LED lights, parallel to the walls, emphasize horizontality.

Curran House

Location: San Francisco, California

Site area: 6,500 sq. ft.

Completion date: 2005

All people deserve the solace of nature in their daily lives. Curran House, an affordable housing
project in San Franciscos Tenderloin District, emphasizes the role of landscape as sanctuary in a
threatening world. Programmed for passive use, the garden is a quiet oasis in a chaotic environ-
ment. A verdant courtyard welcomes residents as soon as they step into the building. The lobby
and courtyard are tightly wed, creating a single, embracive space on warm days, when the lobby
wall retracts, bringing the garden inside.
Through the use of hand-hewn materials and lush planting, Cochrans design intensifies
the sense of being in nature. Sturdy benches carved from salvaged timberlovingly chiseled and
polishedreflect the work of the human hand. Their color is a warm syrupy brown, corresponding
to the soft green backdrop of the Tasmanian tree fern. Benches surround a long, low rectangular
pool, which is the focal point of the space. At times, the pools quiet murmur fills the courtyard,
masking sounds from the street and reinforcing the sense of refuge. Baby tears ground cover, like Plants

the feathery tree fern backdrop, lends a delicacy to the watery complexion. The courtyards perim- Actinidia chinensis

eter is planted with bamboo to screen adjacent buildings, creating a green enclosure. Cochran Citrus sp.

designed it as a vertical garden or a green wall to enhance the lushness of the space. Clivia miniata

Unlike the courtyard, the roof garden is flooded with light. Galvanized troughs provide Cycas revoluta

residents with a place to grow their own plants and vegetables. Cochran specified citrus trees, Dicksonia antarctica

pomegranates, and kiwi vines, chosen for their edible as well as ornamental qualities. The roof Ophiopogon japonicus

garden fosters a sense of community by encouraging residents to interact while working side by Phormium tenax Rubra

side on their garden plots. Punica granatum Nana

Semiarundinaria fastuosa

Soleirolia soleirolii

Trachycarpus fortunei

Zantedeschia aethiopica
 79

The paving flows from interior to garden.

80
 81

Handcrafted benches invite the visitor into a lush green oasis.

82

Plan of Curran House

83
84
 85

A thin film of water reflects the sky and screens noise from surrounding streets.
86

View of San Franciscos Tenderloin District

with Curran House located midblock on
the left side.
 87

Galvanized agricultural troughs give residents a place to grow plants and vegetables.
Hayes Valley R o o f Garden

Location: San Francisco, California

Site area: 1,300 sq. ft.

Completion date: 2002 Plants

Aloe peglerae

The Hayes Valley Roof Garden emphasizes views. Cochran seized the opportunity to extend Aloinopsis schooneesii

the sight line from the interior of the loft to the surrounding cityscape by aligning the garden Cheiridopsis borealis

elements. Silvery aluminum decking draws the eye from the east window to the distant setting. Crassula columella

Planters frame the decked walkway and further accentuate its strong directionality. The horizon Crassula perforata

view, along with the rooftop wind and bright sunlight, give a sense of floating above the urban Delosperma lehmannii

landscape. The feeling is even stronger at night, when the golden glow of a fiber-optic cable Echeveria elegans

guides the eye past the darkened rail to the city lights beyond. Cochrans intent was to foster a Echeveria gibbiflora Perle Von Nurnberg

sense of compression and expansion. The curves of horizontally stacked planters seem to mimic Echeveria lindsayana

the forms of distant foothills, appearing to compress the space. The planters are canted toward Euphorbia obesa

the building to present a larger garden area than would otherwise have been visible from within Fenestraria aurantiaca

the loft. The plants themselves are a low carpet of woolly textured succulents. Lapidaria margarethae

As is the case with most rooftop gardens, weight was a major consideration, and it restricted Lithops gracilidelineata

the choice of plants and materials. Lightweight aluminum and Plexiglas were used in combination Lithops localis

with plants with shallow roots and little mass, mostly drought-tolerant succulents requiring very Phyllostachys nigra Henon

little water and growing in only six inches of a lightweight soil mix (with a Styrofoam underlay). Pleiospilos bolusii

Each planter contains a different genus of succulent, displaying varying tones of purple, bronze, Sedum reflexum Blue Spruce

and pink over an icy blue undercoat. Sedum rubrotinctum

Soft feathery grasses capture the southern light, producing a glow similar to the sun over Sedum sieboldii

the seas horizon. The wind has a palpable presence and is marked by the swaying of the grasses. Sedum spathulifolium Cape Blanco

A permeable screen blocks a neighboring view, undulating along the edge of the garden and Sempervivum caucasicum

allowing sunlight and wind to pass through it. The milky blue tone of the screen harmonizes with Sempervivum Lavender & Old Lace

the icy blue undercoat of the succulents. Sempervivum tectorum

Senecio serpens

Nasella tenuissima
89
90
91
92

Roof terrace viewed in context with adjoining properties.

The translucent Plexiglass screen reflects the use of

interior materials.

Fiber-optic lights beneath a narrow acrylic channel

93
94

Opposite: Layers of undulating succulents and backlit Mexican feather grass

0 10ft.

0 10ft.
N
Plan of Hayes Valley Roof Garden
N
95
96
 97

Styrofoam blocks maintain the soil depth and minimize weight. Dipped and sloped planters maximize the visual impact.
Wa rd R esid en ce

Location: Palo Alto, California

Site area: 7,500 sq. ft.

Completion date: 2003

Cochrans objective for the Ward Residence was to develop a place of private tranquility to encour-
age reflection and meditation. Two large existing buildings, located on either side of the narrow
site, imposed constraints. In response, perimeters were buffered with translucent acrylic walls that
act as scrims, theatrical devices that obscure but do not completely mask the views beyond. One
scrim is covered with a layer of black bamboo; the luminous acrylic backdrop enhances the dark
bamboo leaves. Another is a foil, against which shadows of maple leaves play. The quietly absorb-
ing quality established by the walls and plantings continues into the house, where three ground-
level windows create sculptural vignettes. Recognizing the ability of water to amplify a small
space, Cochran designed them to reference water in its three states: liquid, solid, and vapor.
The front garden is occupied by a group of granite cubes arranged to form a sculptural
piece. The rhythmic grid of blocks is ordered like an agricultural landscape. One block alonean
object in spacewould not have sufficed. A series was necessary to fill the yard and to create a
complete spatial composition. Passersby frequently stop to gaze at this garden, which contrasts
starkly, in intent and effect, with the front yards adjacent to it. It is one of Cochrans bolder designs,
and its color palette is striking. Red blades of Japanese blood grass are tinged with lime, contrast-
ing with the deep green moss and purple leaves of the Japanese maple. The composition was Plants

approached as layers of color that intersect and relate. Color saturation was particularly important, Acer palmatum Bloodgood

as the small garden required careful balancing to prevent any one element from dominating. Bambusa oldhamii

Thus, the deep red-purple of the Japanese maple balances the dense green moss and solid white Equisetum hyemale

granite. Eucalyptus sideroxylon

Imperata cylindrical rubra

Ophiopogon japonicus

Phyllostachys nigra

Sagina subulata
99
100
 101

Front garden with waves of Irish moss, scored granite cubes, and Japanese blood grass
102

0 10ft.

Plan of Ward Residence

0 10ft.
103
104 Opposite: Translucent acrylic scrims create a backlit edge, visually expanding the narrow side yard.
105
106

Giant timber bamboo contrasts with the furrowed eucalyptus tree.

107
108

Floor-level windows frame three vignettes of mutable water elements.

 109

Fog Ice Water

P o r tl an d A r t M u s e u m

Location: Portland, Oregon

Total site area: 22,100 sq. ft.

Completion date: 2000

The sculpture garden at the Portland Art Museum is not only a place for displaying art, the space
functions as art itself. The composition changes according to the location of movable plinths and
the presence or absence of vertical steel panels. Within the extreme flexibility of this format, a
multitude of internal configurations is possible. Although the garden contains no plants, the exist-
ing Katsura trees, which bound the space, provide balance and softness.
Designed for a rainy climate, the space holds and emits light. Cochran uses ambient glow
to highlight planar elements and to strengthen perception of the gardens volumetric qualities.
Deeply recessed fixtures direct light downward to the pavement, making the plinths appear to
hover above the ground plane. From the base of a glass perimeter wall, light is directed upward.
Its intensity fades toward the top of the glass, creating a diaphanous curtain that separates the
sculpture garden from the world beyond.
The atmosphere of the space changes with the seasons, weather, and time of day. Static
elements convey temporality through the textures of their surfaces. The mutable zinc-sprayed
steel plinths express changes in weather. Rain etches the zinc, and sunlight is absorbed by it.
Perimeter walls offer different levels of permeability. Slots punctuate the translucent sandblasted
glass, allowing for views in. A mirrored partition tricks the eye into believing that the garden
extends to an adjacent public path, dissolving a corner of the space. Concrete walls serve as solid
backdrops for sculptural pieces.
Sadly, changes made subsequent to the projects completion have compromised the integ-
rity of the design. These include lowering the walls and removing the Katsura trees. The spread-
ing, deciduous Katsuras were replaced with stiff, columnar evergreens, resulting in a more sterile
atmosphere. The original design, illustrated in these photographs, shows a delicate balance of Plants

carefully proportioned elements, with perimeter trees informing and softening the overall space. Carpinus betulus Fastigiata

Cercideiphyllum japonicum

Opposite: Movable zinc-coated plinths allow for curatorial flexibility.

111
112

Opposite: The design balances security with openness, enclosure with transparency.

A sliding gate for public access to the sculpture garden and Stainless steel gates and fence with bead-blasted finish
for art deliveries
113
114
115
116

Opposite: A freestanding concrete wall for displaying art

0 10ft.

Plan of Portland Art Museum

117
118

Opposite: A new public walkway offers glimpses of the sculpture garden.

119
Ro ss R esid en ce

Location: Ross, California

Site area: 1,800 sq. ft.

Completion date: 2007

A sequence of courtyards fans outward like an archipelago of green islands within this residence.
Cochran sought to mingle interior and exterior spaces, and to maximize a sense of concentrated
or distilled nature. Viewable from different angles, the outdoor rooms act as breathing spaces
for the house, letting in sunlight and air. Visual coherence was achieved through the repetition
of materials, such as limestone, golden crushed granite, and plant types that move through the
building, hopping from one courtyard to another. Each has a subtle and distinct character. Some plants

are green and lush. Others are spare, containing only a single plant variety and a basin of water. Acer palmatum dissectum Viridis

One enters the house via a walkway bordered by upright bamboo. Within the first courtyard, Acer palmatum Seiryu

vertical rushes flank a gurgling fountain; the rushes are repeated in the next courtyard, where they Agave victoriae-reginae

are complemented with bands of carpet sedum, black pebbles, and a low-growing succulent. The Betula utilis var. jacquemontii

color palette is warm and light. Silvery fescues and succulents contrast with deep green bamboo Calamagrostis x acutiflora Karl Foerster

and white birch. The light-colored masonry of the house is warm, as is the pale crushed granite Carex divulsa (prev. C. tumulicola)

and bronze water basin. Cochran says it is a warmer cool compared to her other schemes, due Dasylirion wheeleri

to the balancing of blue and silver with cream. Festuca glauca Elijah Blue

Juncus pallidus

Magnolia x soulangeana Rustica Rubra

Ophiopogon japonicus Nana

Sagina subulata

Scirpus cernuus

Sedum hispanicum Minus

Sedum spathulifolium Cape Blanco

Sedum orpetti

Semiarundinaria fastuosa

Soleirolia soleirolii
 121

Coexisting interior and exterior rooms

122
 123

A central courtyard holds a bronze fountain vessel.

124

A raised Cor-ten bed provides privacy.

125
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0 10ft.

N
Plan of Ross Residence
0 10ft.
 127

Glass shower surrounded by courtyard sedges and birches

128

Masses of blue fescue in west courtyard

 129

Natural light enters the interior through this composed landscape.

P en in su l a R es i de nce

Location: Hillsborough, California

Site area: 0.33 acres

Completion date: 2007

Through simple gestures, the design of the Peninsula Residence promotes a sense of refuge
and respite. The journey from suburban street to front door is intentionally lengthened by an
entry walk, which gently guides visitors up the steep hill. An episodic series of turns and landings
focuses attention on the journey, not the destination. Visually rich, tactile materials, such as warm
earth-colored Cor-ten steel, invite scrutiny. Beneath an oak tree, dark shadows dapple milky white
concrete steps. Sounds of birds and rustling leaves mingle with the whisper of dripping water. A
fountain emerges at the threshold of the house as a striking black plane, covered with a thin film
of water.
Upon entering the house, one encounters two courtyards with views over the hillside. Four-
foot-high walls firmly enclose these spaces but are low enough to peer over. Smooth black peb-
bles form a carpet underfoot, and granite benches project from the wall. Overhead, arching oak
branches form a lacy canopy. The simple planar geometry of the concrete walls heightens ones
awareness of the beautiful organic structure of the trees.
In plan, the garden appears deceptively simple and austere. In elevation, the heights of
the walls rise and fall as they slide past each other in measured cadence. Paths and courtyards
embrace the visitor with folded sheets of Cor-ten steel and wedges of concrete. As in other
Cochran projects, one senses the human hand at work, juxtaposing crafted materials against
nature. The simplicity of colorwhite, warm gray, rust, black, dusty green (of the live oak), and Plants

muted, darker greensis quieting. Dymondia margaretae

Juncus pallidus

Juncus patens Carmens Gray

Lomandra longifolia Breeze

Phormium Rubrum

Quercus agrifolia
131
132
133
134
135
136

0 10ft.

Plan of Peninsula Residence N

0 10ft.
137
138
139
140

Water flowing over black concrete disappears beneath the pavers.

141
Ston e E d g e Vi ne ya r d

Location: Sonoma, California

Site area: 3.5 acres

Completion date: 2007

Cochrans intention for Stone Edge Vineyard was to design a serene, uncluttered landscape.
Several tall weighty elementsa new observatory building, a spa pavilion, and ancient bay and
oak treesrequired balancing. The two buildings were sited early in the design process to ensure
their harmonious relation and to protect the existing trees. Linear and planar elements of varying
heights and widths respond to the weighty presence of the buildings and trees. Two bars of
twenty-five-foot-high olive trees were planted to counterweight a massive spreading bay tree. The
lap pool, poised slightly above grade, acts as a fulcrum, connecting the observatory and spa.
A planar, two-foot-high meadow links the lawn, pool, and olive alles. The graceful
verticality of three types of grassall with thin, narrow leavescontrasts with the staid gravel Plants

ground plane. The meadow also serves an important environmental function, as a wash for Acanthus mollis

absorbing floodwater when the adjacent creek overflows. The meadow grasses subtly reveal the Chondropetalum elephantinum

changing seasons through their varied times of seed production. Cor-ten steel risers and low walls Cupressus sempervirens

act as ballasts in the composition. A fifteen-foot-high pyramid reclines sphinxlike at the edge of Festuca mairei

the property, completing the trilogy of structures; while sun-baked river rocks, salvaged from the Furcraea foetida

floodplain, reference the preexisting alluvial context. Gunnera manicata

Hellebrous argutifolius

Muhlenbergia capillaris

Olea europaea

Pennisetum spathiolatum

Prunus caroliniana Compacta

Prunus serrulata Mount Fuji

Rhamnus alaternus

Schinus molle

Schizachyrium scoparium
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
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0 100ft

N
Plan of Stone Edge Vineyard
0 100ft
 153

The lap pool acts as a fulcrum connecting the buildings.

154
155
156

A lawn panel defined by tall meadow grasses

157
158

N 0 10ft.

Plan of Stone Edge Vineyard 0 10ft.

159
160
 161

Century-old olives line the axis to the observatory.

162
 163

The stone pyramid captures the shadow of an ancient California bay tree.
Acknowledgments

When the opportunity to write this book was presented, I was very interested. I had known Andrea
Cochran from our graduate school days, and we have continued our friendship over the years.
After years of practice, I began to pursue a fulltime academic career in 1996. At about that time,
Andrea was establishing herself as an independent practitioner in San Francisco. Her work was
evolving into a highly developed art form, and her stature as a unique and independent designer
was growing, too. Long years of apprenticeship and partnership resulted in a highly successful
practice. Her design instincts were always sure, but it was through unstinting hard work and com-
mitment to design ideals that she has achieved the deservedly high regard of her peers.
As one interested in landscape aesthetics, I wondered why Cochrans work is considered
beautiful by so many people, designers and nondesigners alike. I became determined to explore
the reasons for its success, by visiting the projects, conducting interviews, and organizing a review
of literature related to landscape architecture, perception, and aesthetics. The site visits revealed
what it is like to be immersed in one of her designs, to experience its full spatiality and exqui-
site materiality. The interviews brought her instinctual design approach to light: her reliance on
modern art for inspiration and her knowledge of craft for the materialization of ideas. The litera-
ture review provided some basic explanation for the timeless appeal of her work. Its solid, well-
executed planar geometries, softened and balanced by plants, appeal to both the intellectual
and emotional sides of human nature. She intuitively grasps issues of scale and their influence on
composition, consistently striving to shape something new, unusual, compelling, and unfailingly
appropriate for each site. The ability to convey feeling through technical mastery and composi-
tional skill is what makes her work art.
During the past two years, I made several trips to the Bay Area. Andrea was more than
generous with her time and hosted me and my husband, Daryl Carrington, in San Francisco and
Healdsburg. Daryl was equally fascinated with her work. His architects perspective was invaluable
in providing a critical view from a sister discipline. His patience and affectionate encouragement,
and that of our sons, was unflagging. I would like to thank Justine Gerety for her astute comments
on the early drafts. Her advice, expertise, and enthusiasm were enormously helpful. PAP editor
Laurie Manfra has my gratitude as well, for she saw the book through multiple drafts and was
instrumental to its final realization. Finally, I must thank my parents and parents-in-law, whose love
and encouragement are the bedrock of my life.

Mary Myers, PhD., RLA.

 165

There are so many people who made this book possible. First and foremost are the clients, who
believed in the work of my firm and allowed us to push the envelope as designers. As a result,
we have been able to create landscapes that are personally meaningful, innovative, and carefully
crafted. I strongly believe that living in northern California, in a cultural atmosphere that chal-
lenges convention and fosters a new way of looking at the world, has allowed me to make spaces
that would not have been possible had I stayed on the East Coast. The benign physical climate
has been supportive, as well. Californians spend a great deal of time outside, and they place
greater value on the landscape than others in less temperate zones. We have also been fortunate
to collaborate with architects who have allowed us to do our best work and make seamless con-
nections between buildings and landscape.
The work illustrated here was accomplished in collaboration with my staff over the past ten
years. They share my obsessive passion for detail and are an integral part of each design, from
conception to completion. Each one of them has worked diligently to ensure that the projects are
beautifully executed. Because craft has been central to our work, I would also like to thank Pascual
Castillo, an extraordinary and multitalented artisan, who, with his crew, built a number of the more
challenging and elegantly constructed elements of our designs.
The work involved in compiling material for the book has also been a labor of love for a
number of people in my office over the past year and a half. Lauren Ross-Miller organized and
kept the work on track in the early stages of the project; Tom Taylor coordinated the work as it
progressed; and finally, Jana Balik FitzGerald took the book through its final stages with great
commitment and hard work. Susan Hughes worked tirelessly over many late nights and weekends
ensuring that our images were organized, edited, and color corrected; no small task, we learned.
Ross Hansen spent countless hours preparing the beautifully drawn plans that capture the spirit of
each project in the descriptions and in the appendix. Emily Rylander and Horngsheng Tu provided
valuable guidance for graphics and layout throughout the process.
E. B. Min, a friend and colleague, was instrumental in helping me express the key elements
of my work through insightful conversations over a number of months. Jeff Fassnacht provided his
invaluable design expertise with regard to the organization of projects and visual flow, to help us
determine how we should best express our work. Kathy Finney, our patient officemate, gave sage
advice on the printing process and graphic technicalities.
I am grateful that Mary Myers has dedicated her considerable time, effort, and talent in
writing a book that will allow readers to understand our work in a larger context. I have known
Mary since our days at Harvards Graduate School of Design, and this book is a continuation of a
long friendship.
I would also like to thank Jennifer Thompson and Kevin Lippert at Princeton Architectural
Press for giving us an opportunity to share our work with a large audience and our editor Laurie
Manfra for her commitment to this project. Jan Haux conveyed the spirit of our work with his
thoughtfully executed layout and design.
On a personal level, I would like to thank my parents for encouraging me on this path. I
have found work that is personally meaningful but also provides me with the opportunity to give
something back to the larger community. Finally, I would like to thank Jerry Doyle; without his love
and support over the last twenty-five years, I would not have been able to do half of the things
that I have accomplished.

Andrea Cochran, FASLA


app en d ix A : P l a nt i nde x
167
A
Abutilon hybrida Flowering Maple
Acanthus mollis Bears Breeches
Acer palmatum Bloodgood Bloodgood Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum Seiryu Seiryu Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum dissectum Viridis Green Laceleaf Japanese Maple
Acer palmatum Japanese Maple
Actinidia chinensis Kiwi
Agave victoriae-reginae Queen Victoria Agave
Alchemilla mollis Ladys Mantle
Aloe peglerae Aloe
Aloinopsis schooneesii Living Stone
Anemone x hybrida
Honorine Joubert White Japanese Anemone
Anemone x hybrida Japanese Anemone
B
Bambusa old`hamii Giant Timber Bamboo
Beschorneria yuccoides Mexican Lily
Betula utilis var. jacquemontii White-barked Himalayan Birch
C
Calamagrostis x acutiflora
Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass
Camassia cusickii Cusicks Camas
Camassia leichtlinii Semiplena Great Camas
Carex divulsa (prev. C. tumulicola) Grey Sedge
Carpinus betulus Fastigiata Columnar European Hornbeam
Cercideiphyllum japonicum Katsura Tree (existing tree)
Cheiridopsis borealis no common name (n. c. n.)
Chimonobambusa quadrangularis Square Stem Bamboo
Chondropetalum elephantinum Large Cape Rush
Citrus sp. Citrus Trees
Clematis Alabast Clematis
Clematis armandii Evergreen Clematis
Clematis Lady Northcliffe Clematis
168

Clivia miniata Bush Lily H

Crassula columella Crassula
Crassula perforata Jade Plant
Cupressus sempervirens Italian Cypress
Cycas revoluta Sago Palm
Cyperus papyrus Papyrus
Hakonechloa macra Hakone Grass
Helleborus argutifolius Corsican Hellebore
Helleborus orientalis Lenten Rose
Heuchera maxima Island Alum Root
Himalayacalamus hookerianus Himalayan Blue Bamboo

D I
Dasylirion wheeleri Desert Spoon Imperata cylindrical rubra Japanese Blood Grass
Delosperma lehmannii Iceplant Ipheion uniflorum White Star Spring Star Flower
Dicksonia antarctica Tasmanian Tree Fern Iris Eleanor Roosevelt Bearded Iris Eleanor Roosevelt
Dymondia margaretae Silver Carpet
J
E Juncus pallidus Giant Rush
Echeveria elegans Hen & Chicks Juncus patens Carmens Gray California Gray Rush
Echeveria gibbiflora
Perle Von Nurnberg n.c.n. L
Echeveria lindsayana n.c.n. Lapidaria margarethae n.c.n.
Equisetum hyemale Horsetail Lithops gracilidelineata n.c.n.
Eucalyptus sideroxylon Red Ironbark (existing trees) Lithops localis Living Stones
Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae Lomandra longifolia Breeze Dwarf Mat Rush
Mrs. Robbs Bonnet Wood Spurge Lonicera hildebrandiana Giant Burmese Honeysuckle
Euphorbia characias wulfenii Spurge
Euphorbia obesa Baseball Plant M
Magnolia x soulangeana
F Rustica Rubra Saucer Magnolia
Fenestraria aurantiaca Babys Toes Miscanthus sinensis Morning Light Japanese Silver Grass
Festuca glauca Elijah Blue Blue Fescue Miscanthus transmorrisonensis Evergreen Miscanthus
Festuca mairei Atlas Fescue Morus alba Fruitless Fruitless White Mulberry
Furcraea foetida Mauritius Hemp Muhlenbergia capillaris Pink Muhly
Muhlenbergia lindheimeri Lindheimers Muhly Grass
G Muhlenbergia rigens Deer Grass
Ginkgo biloba Fairmont Maidenhair Tree
Gunnera manicata Giant Rhubarb N
Narcissus Avalon Avalon Daffodil
Narcissus Ice Follies Large-cupped Daffodil
Nasella tenuissima Mexican Feather Grass
 169

O Sasa pygmaea Dwarf Bamboo

Olea europaea Sevillano Sevillano Olive
Olea europaea Olive
Ophiopogon japonicus Nana Dwarf Mondo Grass
Ophiopogon japonicus Mondo Grass
Ophiopogon planiscapus
Nigrescens Black Mondo Grass
Ornithogalum umbellatum Star of Bethlehem
P Sedum spathulifolium Cape Blanco Cape Blanco Stonecrop
Parthenocissus tricuspidata Boston Ivy
Pennisetum spathiolatum Slender Veldt Grass
Phormium Rubrum Red New Zealand Flax
Phormium tenax Atropurpureum Purple New Zealand Flax
Phormium tenax Rubra New Zealand Flax
Phyllostachys nigra Henon Giant Gray Bamboo
Phyllostachys nigra Black Bamboo
Platanus x acerifolia Bloodgood London Plane Tree
Pleioblastus pygmae Dwarf Bamboo
Pleiospilos bolusii Mimicry Plant Sutera Snowstorm Snowstorm Bacopa
Prunus caroliniana Compacta Carolina Laurel Cherry
Prunus serrulata Mount Fuji Mount Fuji Flowering Cherry
Punica granatum Nana Dwarf Pomegranate
Pyrus calleryana Aristocrat Callery Pear
Pyrus fauriei Korean Sun Korean Sun Pear
Schinus molle Pepper Tree
Schizachyrium scoparium Little Bluestem
Scirpus cernuus Fiber Optic Grass
Sedum hispanicum Minus Tiny Button Stonecrop
Sedum orpetti Lambs Tail
Sedum reflexum Blue Spruce Spruce-leaved Stonecrop
Sedum rubrotinctum Jelly Beans
Sedum sieboldii Dragon Blood Sedum
Semiarundinaria fastuosa Temple Bamboo
Sempervivum Lavender & Old Lace n.c.n.
Sempervivum caucasicum n.c.n.
Sempervivum tectorum Hens and Chicks
Senecio serpens Blue Chalk Sticks
Sequoia semperviriens Coast Redwood
Soleirolia soleirolii Babys Tears
Stipa gigantea Giant Feather Grass
Sutera Gold n Pearls Gold n Pearls Bacopa
Symphoricarpos albus Common Snowberry
T
Teucrium fruticans Bush Germander
Trachycarpus fortunei Windmill Palm

Q U
Quercus agrifolia California Coast Live Oak Umbellularia californica California Bay

R Z
Rhamnus alaternus Italian Buckthorn Zantedeschia aethiopica Common Calla Lily
Rosa Sally Holmes Sally Holmes Rose Zelkova Serrata Japanese Zelkova

S
Sagina subulata Irish Moss
Salix caprea Pendula Kilmarnock Willow
app en d ix B : M at e r i a l s i nde x
 171

walden studios

Plantings Built Elemen ts 6 Stone rubble

A Beschorneria yuccoides 1 Entry 7 Renovated warehouse
B Festuca mairei 2 Concrete wall 8 Reflecting pool
C Furcraea foetida 3 Napa cobble-chip wall 9 Cor-ten ramp
D Lawn 4 Gravel parking lot 10 Bocce ball court
E Morus alba Fruitless 5 ADA parking 11 Agricultural building
F Muhlenbergia lindheimeri
G Olea europaea Sevillano
H Parthenocissus tricuspidata
I Platanus x acerifolia
Bloodgood Allee
Plantings
J Pyrus calleryanaAristocrat A Beschorn
K Pyrus fauriei Korean sun B Festuca
C Furcraea
L Existing Quercus agrifolia D Lawn
M Stipa gigantea E Morus al
F Muhlenb
G Olea eur
VINEYARD
H Partheno
I Platanus

J Pyrus ca
K Pyrus fau
E L Existing
M Stipa gig
6

Built Elements
C A J 1 Entry
D
M 9 2 Concrete
3 Napa cob
G
VINEYARD 8 10 4 Gravel pa
4
7 D 5 ADA park
B 6 Stone rub
K 7 Renovated
G
1
8 Reflecting
5 7 11
9 Cor-ten ra
I H 2 3 10 Bocce bal
11 Agricultur
RR TRACKS
L
N

0 100 ft.
172

brookvale residence

Plantings I Helleborus argutifolius S Trachelospermum jasminoides 7 Texas limestone fountain

A Acer palmatum J Juncus patens T Vegetable garden 8 Auto court
B Anemone x hybrida K Lawn U Zelkova serrata 9 Concrete retaining wall
Honorine Jobert L Magnolia x soulangeana 10 Concrete drive
C Chimonobambusa quadrangularis M Ophiopogon planiscapus Built Elements 11 Wire fence with vines
D Cyperus papyrus Nigrescens 1 Entrance gate 12 Play court
E Equisetum hyemale N Phormium tenax Atropurpureum 2 Stucco wall 13 Texas limestone terrace on
F Euphorbia amygdaloides O Phyllostachys nigra 3 Concrete walk pedestal pavers
Mrs. Robbs Bonnet P Pleioblastus pygmaea 4 Crushed granite 14 Pool
G Ginkgo biloba Fairmont Q Existing Quercus agrifolia 5 Shell stone wall 15 Limestone stair with LED lights
H Hakonechloa macra R Existing Sequoia semperviriens 6 Residence entrance 16 Spa

A R 5 O 3 Q 2

1
D E
P
10 N Q
9 6 4

U
J
S A

E 8 7 13 14 K O

11

L
N RESIDENCE 13 15 M

G POOL HOUSE 16
F I
12

R N

11 C H 9 T S G
0 10 ft.

Plantings Built Elements

A Acer palmatum K Lawn 1 Entrance gate
B Anemone x hybrida Honorine Jobert L Magnolia x soulangeana 10 Concrete driveway
2 Stucco wall
11 Wire fence with vines
 173

childrens garden

Plantings F Existing Magnolia

A Abutilon hybrida G Existing Prunus tree
B Alchemilla mollis H Salix caprea Pendula fence with Rosa
C Existing Camellia Sally Holmes
D Clematis varieties I Sutera Goldn Pearls
C. armandii J Sutera Snowstorm
C. Lady Northcliffe
E Lawn Built Element s
1 Wood deck
2 Willow-twig bolt columns, along fence
12 H 11 2 3 Willow lanterns
4 Decomposed granite
10 5 Cor-ten steel stair
6 Cor-ten steel edging
Planting
A Abutilon hybrida
B B Alchemilla mollis
7 Wattle fence and railing
9
C C Existing Camellia
E D Clematis varieties
8 Sloped lawn strip
C. armandii
9 thcliLawn
C.Lady Nor e chair
E Lawn
B 10 Existing fence around property
F Existing Magnolia
G G Existing Prunus tree
H Salix capreaPendula11
fence Living willow fence
J
with RosaSally Holmes
I SuteraGoldn Pearls12 Moveable willow spheres
13 J SuteraSnowstorm
13 Willow tunnel thicket over existing slide
8
I Built Elements
A 14 Lawn Table and wooden seats
1 Wood deck
2 Willow twigboltcolumns along ence
f
J 5 3 Willow lanterns
F 6 4 Decomposed granite
5 Cor-ten steel stair
6 Cor-ten steel edging
7 7 Willow-wattle fence and railing
I D 8 Sloped lawn strip
9 Lawnchair
10 Existing ence
f around proper ty
11 Living willowfence
D 14 12 Moveable willow sphere s
1 4 G 13 Willow tunnelthicketover existing slide
14 LawnTableand wooden seats
3
2

0 10 ft.
174

perry residence

Plantings E Helleborus orientalis Built Elements

A Acer palmatum
B Existing Acer palmatum
C Anemone x hybrida Honorine
Joubert
D Betula utilis var. Jacquemontii
F Himalayacalamus hookerianus
G Heuchera maxima, Narcissus
Avalon, and Narcissus Ice Follies
H Sasa pygmaea
I Zantedeschia aethiopica
1 Charcoal-colored concrete paving
2 Crushed roofing-granite paving
3 Polished black concrete walls
4 Cobalt LED lights
5 Brushed stainless-steel flush strips
and stairs
6 Ipe property-line fence

G D 5

C Plantings
A Acer palmatum
7 B Existing Acer palmatum
C Anemone x hybrida Honorine Joubert
F D Betula utilis var. Jacquemontii
H E Helleborus orientalis
6 F Himalayacalamus hookerianus
I G Heuchera maxima, Narcissus Avalon,
and Narcissus Ice Follies
H Sasa pygmaea
B E 2 C I Zantedeschia aethiopica
3
4 Built Elements
C 1 Charcoal gray-colored concrete paving
A
2 Crushed roofing granite paving
3 3 Polished black-concrete walls
4 Cobalt LED lights
5 Brushed stainless steel flush strips and stairs
6 Ipe property-line fence
H

I
F F
E

RESIDENCE N

0 10 ft.
 175

hayes valley roof garden

Plantings D Euphorbia obesa S. rubrotinctum

A Aloe peglerae E Lithops localis and Lithops S. sieboldii
B Crassula columella gracilidelineata S. spathulifolium
C Echeveria elegans F Nasella tenuissima I Sedum spathulifolium Cape Blanco
E. gibbiflora Perle Von Nurnberg G Phyllostachys nigra Henon J Senecio serpens
E. lindsayana H Sedum K Sempervivum
E. obesa S. reflexum Blue Spruce S. caucasicum
S. Lavender & Old Lace
S. tectorum
2 10 4

Built El em ent s
Plantings
A Aloe peglerae1 Entrance to roof garden
B Crassula columella
C
2 Aluminum checker plate
Echeveria elegans
E. gibbiflora Perle Von Nurnberg
3 Aluminum planter
F E. lindsayana
9 F E. 4 Recycled
obesa wood decking
D Euphorbia obesa
E Lithops localis
5 andTapered
Lithops gracilidelineata
aluminum planters
F Nasella tenuissima
H 6 G G Phyllostachys6 nigra
Mexican
Henon river pebbles
H Sedum
B 7 Wavy aluminum
S. reflexum Blue Spruce planters
S. rubrotinctum
S. 8 Translucent, sanded Plexi-glass screen,
sieboldii
C S. spathulifolium
I along
Sedum spathulifolium east
Cape parapet
Blanco
A J Senecio serpens
9 Concrete pavers on pedestals
K Sempervivum
8 6 7 K S. 10 Acrylic
caucasicum channel with fiber-optic light
S. Lavender & Old Lace
S. 11 Cantilevered
tectorum canopy above concrete
5 D 6
paver deck
4 11 Built Elements
I 1 Entrance to roof garden
2 Aluminum checker plate
E 6 3 Aluminum planter
12 4 Recycled wood decking (Trex)
5 Tapered aluminum planters
6 Mexican beach pebbles
2
3 J G 7 Wavy aluminum planters
8 Translucent, sanded Plexi-glass screen
along east parapet
9 Concrete pavers on pedestals
1 RESIDENCE 10 Acrylic channel with fiber-optic light
11 Cantilevered canopy above concrete
0 10 ft. paver deck

N
176

ward residence

Plantings Built El emen ts 9 Pea gravel

A Acer palmatum Bloodgood 1 Black pebbles 10 I-Beam bench
B Bambusa oldhamii 2 Wavy steel planters 11 Mahogany bench
C Equisetum hyemale 3 Sierria white gravel and granite 12 Split-face Sierra white granite
D Existing Eucalyptus sideroxylon cubes pavers
E Imperata cylindrica 4 Concrete walk 13 Sierra granite wall
F Lawn 5 Exposed aggregate bands 14 Fog installation
G Ophiopogon japonicus 6 Crushed track fines 15 Ice installation made of recycled
H Phyllostachys nigra 7 Carport glass
I Sagina subulata 8 Translucent screen panels and 16 Water feature with black concrete
fence

Plantings
13 A Acer palmatum Bloodgood
B Bambusa oldhamii
C Equisetum hyemale
B H D Existing Eucalyptus sideroxylon
14 15 16
1 E Imperata cylindrica
F Lawn
A G Ophiopogon japonicus
H Phyllostachys nigra
2 I I Sagina subulata
RESIDENCE
3
11
E Built Elements
8 G 9 1 Black pebbles
C 2 Wavy steel planters
12 4
3 Sierra white granite cubes
4 Concrete walk
10 9 5 5 Exposed agregate bands
STUDIO F 8 6 Crushed track fines
6 7 Carport
A 8 Translucent screen panels and fence
9 Pea gravel
H 10 I-Beam bench
11 Mahogany bench
8 7 N 12 Split-face Sierra white granite pavers
D 13 Sierra granite wall
0 10 ft. 14 Fog installation
15 Ice installation made of recycled glass
16 Water feature with black concrete
 177

por tland ar t museum

Plantings Built El emen ts 7 Freestanding sculptural wall

A Carpinus betulus Fastigiata
B Existing Cercidiphyllum tree
C Groundcover
D Existing Aesculus hippocastanum
1 Cast aluminum bollards
2 Stationary art platform
3 Tapered concrete benches
4 Scofield Lithotex Colorstone:
Sheffield Steel
5 Scofield Lithotex Colorstone:
Dover Chalk
6 Travertine plinth
8 Concrete wall with cantilevered
stainless steel bench
9 Movable metal platform with art
10 Sliding gate
11 Bead-blasted, stainless steel security
fence with stainless steel cables
12 Sandblasted glass wall with neon
up-lights

ART LOADING DOCK

D MUSEUM
ENTRANCE MUSEUM CAFE
Plantings
A Carpinus betulus Fastigiata
B Existing Cercidiphyllum tree
9
3 10 C Groundcover
C 10 D Existing Aesculus hippocastanum

Built Elements
11 1 Cast aluminum bollards
8 2 Stationary art platform
1 4 5 A 3 Tapered concrete benches
4 Scofield Lithotex Colorstone, Sheffield Steel
7
5 Scofield Lithotex Colorstone, Dover Chalk
6 6 Travertine plinth
2 12 7 Freestanding sculptural wall
8 Concrete wall with cantilevered
stainless steel bench
9 Movable metal platform with art
C 10 Sliding gate
11 Bead-blasted, stainless steel secruity
fence with stainless steel cables
12 Sandblasted glass wall with neon uplights
B
0 10 ft.
N
178

curran house

Plantings G Phormium tenax Rubra Built Elements 6 Reclaimed cypress-wood bench

A Actinidia chinensis H Punica granatum Nana 1 Integrally colored concrete 7 Ground floor garden
B Citrus sp. I Semiarundinaria fastuosa paving bands 8 Roof line
C Clivia miniata J Soleirolia soleirolii 2 Bench on structure 9 Rectangular planter with Citrus sp.
D Cycas revoluta K Trachycarpus fortunei 3 Skylight to basement 10 Benches
E Dicksonia antarctica L Zantedeschia aethiopica 4 Drain 11 Trex fence
F Ophiopogon japonicus 5 Black concrete water feature 12 Roof line
13 Individual vegetable gardens in
horse-trough planters
14 Roof-vent enclosure
7 8 B 9 10 H 11 12
15 Seating
16 Roof garden
Plantings
A 17 Street entrance
Actinida chinensis
J B Citrus sp.
16 C Clivia miniata
14 D Cycas revoluta
13 E Dicksonia antarctica
E
F Ophiopogon japonicus
15 G Phormium tenax Rubra
H Punica granatum Nana
I Semiarundinaria fastuosa
15 J Soleirolia soleirolii
K Trachycarpus fortunei
K L Zantedeschia aethiopica
D 2
G L F K Built Elements
16 Integrally colored concrete paving bands
C 1
2 Bench on structure
3 1 1 17 3 Skylight to basement
I 5
4 Drain
4 5 Black concrete water feature
G L F
6 6 Reclaimed cypress-wood bench
7 Ground floor garden
8 Roof line
F 9 Rectangular planter with Citrus sp.
10 Benches
11 Trex fence
12 Roof line
13 Individual vegetable gardens
E
in horse trough planters
14 Roof vent enclosure
15 Seating
J Roof garden
16
17 Street entrance

0 10 ft.
 179

ross residence

Plantings Karl Foerster

A Acer palmatum dissectum Viridis F Dasylirion wheeleri in planters
B Acer palmatum Seiryu G Festuca glauca Elijah Blue
C Agave victoriae reginae H Juncus pallidus
D Betula utilis var. jacqumontii in Carex I Lawn
divulsa bed J Magnolia x soulangeana Rustica Rubra
E Calamagrostis x acutiflora K Ophiopogon japonicus Nana
L Scirpus cernuus
M Sedum hispanicum Minus
N Sedum orpetti
Planting
B 2 A AcerO palmatum dissectum Cape
Sedum spathulifolium Viridis
Blanco
1 B Acer palmatum Seiryu
6 P Semiarundinaria fastuosa
A C Agave victoriae - reginae
H D D Betula
Q utilis var. jacquemontii
Soleirolia soleirolii in Carex divulsa bed
E E Calamagrostis x acutiflora Karl Foerster
F Dasylirion wheeleri in planters
6 2 Builtglauca
G Festuca Element s Blue
Elijah
H
L H Juncus pallidus
J 4 1 Cedar fence
4 5
2 2
I Lawn
G P 2 Crushed golden granite paving
O
J Magnolia x soulangeana Rustica Rubra
4 ENTRANCE WALK K Ophiopogon japonicus
3 Sandblasted Nana
glass screen
3 L Scirpus cernuus
4 Black Mexican pebble
K M Sedum hispanicum Minus
N Sedum5 orpetti
Bronze water feature by Archie Held
7
H M N
O Sedum6 spathulifolium
Limestone paversCape Blanco
D F 2
P Semiarundinaria fastuosa
6 7 Shower
Q Soleirolia soleirolii
Q
8 Reclaimed cypress bench
Materials
1 Cedar fence
C M I 2 Crushed golden granite paving
3 Sandblasted glass screen
G 4 Black mexican pebble
I 5 Bronze water feature by Archie Held
Q
6 Limestone pavers
2 7 Shower
1 8 Reclaimed cypress bench
8
P
N

0 10 ft.
180

Peninsula residence

Plantings
A Dymondia margaretae
B Juncus patens Carmens Gray
C Lawn
D Lomandra longifolia Breeze
E Phormium tenax Rubrum Built Elements 5 Black precast concrete pavers
F Quercus agrifolia 1 Grasscrete parking strip 6 Black concrete reflecting
G Existing Quercus agrifolia 2 Concrete retaining wall pool
H Symphoricarpos albus 3 Concrete stairs 7 Glass canopy
I Existing Tristania conferta 4 Cor-ten steel wall 8 Black gravel
9 Black granite cantilevered bench
10 Mulch

I 11 Existing pool
12 Existing concrete paving

11

12
C Plantings
A Dymondia margaretae
B Juncus patens Carmens Gray
C Lawn
D Lomandra longifolia Breeze
E Phormium tenax Rubrum
F Quercus agrifolia
G Existing Quercus agrifolia
H Symphoricarpos albus
I Existing Tristania conferta
5 7 E
2 Built Elements
RESIDENCE 1 Grasscrete parking strip
2 Concrete retaining wall
8 3 Concrete stairs
6 8 4 4 Cor-ten steel wall
9 9 5 Black concrete pavers
6 Black concrete reflecting pool
4 H 7 Glass canopy
H G
8 Black gravel
9 Black granite cantilevered bench
10
4 10 Mulch
11 Existing pool
D 12 Existing concrete paving

B B

A 1 A 1

2 3 4 F
0 10 ft.
 181

stone edge vineyard

Plantings F Planting bed I Rhamnus alaternus Ipheion uniflorum White Star

A Chondropetalum elephantinum Acanthus mollis J Schinus molle Iris Eleanor Roosevelt
B Cupressus sempervirens Gunnera manicata K Swale and dry stream bed Muhlenbergia rigens
C Euphorbia characias wulfenii Helleborus argutifolius Camassia cusickii Ornithogalum umbellatum
D Lawn G Prunus caroliniana Compacta Camassia leichtlinii Semiplena L Tall grass meadow
E Olea europaea H Prunus serrulata Mount Fuji Furcraea foetida Schizachyrium scoparium
Muhlenbergia capillaris
Plantings
A Chondropetalum
Festuca maireielephantinum
B Cupressus sempervirens
C Pennisetum
Euphorbia spathiolatum
characias wulfenii
RESIDENTIAL COMPOUND D Lawn
E M Mature Quercus
Olea europaea and
F Planting bed:
Umbellularia californica grove
Acanthus mollis
2 Gunnera manicata
Helleborus argutifolius
3 Prunus
G Built Elcaroliniana
em ent s'Compacta'
H Prunus serrulata Mount Fuji
I 1 Entrance gate
Rhamnus alaternus
K
2 J Schinus molle
M
K 2 Access
Swale / drydrive
stream bed:
1
Camassia cusickii
L 3 Exposed aggregate
Camassia concrete
leichtlinii 'Semiplena'
4 Furcraea foetida
stepping-stones
Ipheion uniflorum White Star
F H Iris 'Eleanor Roosevelt
5 4 Limestone boulder
Muhlenbergia rigens
J 16 D Ornithogalum umbellatum
5 Cor-ten steel shower screen
L Tall Grass Meadow:
6 1 Schizachyrium scoparium
6 Spa building
L 14 Muhlenbergia capillaris
7 Ipe wood Festuca
deck mairei
M L Pennisetum spathiolatum
7 D
M8 Concrete
Mature Quercus terrace
/
8 Umbellularia californica grove
10 A 15 9 Raised lap pool
9 Built Elements
11 1 10 Entrance
Gravel gate
A
2 Access drive
3 11 Reflecting pool concrete
Exposed aggregate
12 stepping stones
G E 13 10 4 12 Limestone
Observatoryboulder
5 Cor-ten steel shower screen
6
13 Spa
Minnesota
building
limestone
7 Ipe wood deck wall
freestanding
A 8 Concrete terrace
I B A 13 9 14 Raised
Boulelap poolwith crushed
court
10 Gravel
17 11 oyster shell
Reflecting pool
N 12 Observatory
1315 Native
Minnesota stone pyramid
limestone freestanding wall
14 Boule court with crushed oyster shell
0 50 ft. 1516 Playfield
Native stone pyramid
16 Playfield
1717 Creek
Creek
P roj ec t C red i t s
 183

Walden Studios
Location: Alexander Valley, California
Client name: Steven Oliver
Project size: 6 acres
Year completed: 2007
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Pei-Ying Wang, Sarah Keizer,
Katherine Bennett, and Alice Chung
Architect: Jensen & Macy Architects (Mark Jensen, Frank Merritt)
Structural engineer: Tipping Mar and Associates
Civil engineer: Atterbury & Associates
General contractor: Oliver & Co.
Steel fabricator: F&M Steel
Stonemason: Domenichelli Masonry
Landscape contractor: JLP Landscaping

Brookvale Residence
Location: Hillsborough, California
Project size: .75 acres
Year completed: 2003
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Mary Muszynski, Alexis Woods,
Elaine Shaw, and Pei-Ying Wang
Architect: Jim Jennings Architecture
Structural engineer: Endres Ware Architects/Engineer
Lighting designer: Dan Dodt
General contractor: Oliver & Co.
Landscape contractor: Martin Ragno & Associates
Concrete work & fountain fabricator: Pascual Castillo Landscape
184

Ch ildrens Garden
Location: San Francisco, California
Project size: 2,600 sq. ft.
Year completed: 2002
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Paola Alfani
Landscape contractor: Pascual Castillo Landscape
Willow fabricator: The Willow Farm

Perry Residence
Location: San Francisco, California
Client name: Mauree Jane and Mark Perry
Project size: 2,200 sq. ft. (rear garden)
Year completed: 2006
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Alice Chung, and Shelley Martin
Architect: Lundberg Design
Interior designer: Frost Tsuji Architects
General contractor: Van Acker Construction Associates, Inc.
Hardscape contractor: Pascual Castillo Landscape
Irrigation/planting contractor: Terra Ferma Landscapes

Curran House
Location: San Francisco, California
Client name: Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
Project size: 6,500 sq. ft.
Year completed: 2005
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Elaine Shaw, Mary Muszynski,
and Shelley Martin
Architect: David Baker + Partners
Associate architect: Gelfand Partners Architects
Developer: Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
General contractor: Cahill Contractors
Landscape contractor: Shooter & Butts Inc.
Custom fountain fabricator: Pascual Castillo Landscape
Reclaimed wood bench fabricators: Pascual Castillo, Jerry Doyle
 185

Hayes Valley Roof Garden

Location: San Francisco, California
Project size: 1,300 sq. ft.
Year completed: 2002
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, and Pei-Ying Wang
Architect: Maria McVarish
Structural engineer for windscreen: Endres Ware Architects/Engineer
Metal and acrylic fabricator for windscreen and canopy: Fence Lawrence La Bianca
Aluminum planter fabricator: Lewis Metal Fabrications
Landscape contractor: Pascual Castillo Landscape

Ward Residence
Location: Palo Alto, California
Client name: Scott Ward
Project size: 7,500 sq. ft.
Year completed: 2003
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Sarah Keizer, and Alexis Woods
Architect: David Baker + Partners
Fountain/ice installation: Pascual Castillo Landscape
Fog and fence installation: Mark Goodrich
Landscape contractor: Raul Campos Landscaping
Fence fabricator: Melissa MacDonald
Stone sculptor: Kenneth Hepburn Associates Architectural Arts

Por tland Ar t Museum

Location: Portland, Oregon
Project size: 15,200 sq. ft. (roof garden 6,500 sq. ft.)
Year completed: 2000
Landscape architects: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, and Topher Delaney
Design team: Lindy Small, E. B. Min, Maggie Peng
Architect: Ann Beha Architects
Associate architects: SERA Architects
Structural and civil engineer: KPFF
Structural engineer for landscape design: Endres Ware Architects/Engineer
Mechanical and electrical engineer: Altieri, Sebor & Wieber
Signage consultant: Michael Reed
186

Lighting designer Dan Dodt

General contractor Hoffman Construction
Glass and metal fabricator Design Metals

Ross Residence
Location: Ross, California
Project size: 1,800 sq. ft. (courtyard area)
Year completed: 2007
Landscape architect: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Sarah Keizer, Ines Lejarraga
Architect: Dirk Denison Architects
Landscape contractor: Gardeners Guild
Bench and planter fabricator: Pascual Castillo Landscape
Fountain sculptor: Archie Held

Peninsula Residence
Location: Hillsborough, California
Project size: 0.33 acres
Year completed: 2007
Landscape architect: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, and Horngsheng Tu
Architect: KUTH/RANIERI architects
Structural engineer: The Structech Group
General contractor: Pete Moffat Construction
Landscape contractor: Pascual Castillo Landscape

Stone Edge Vineyard

Location: Sonoma, California
Project size: 3.5 acres
Year completed: 2007
Landscape architect: Andrea Cochran, FASLA, Emily Rylander, Pei-Ying Wang
Architect: Studios Architecture
Landscape contractor: Pascual Castillo Landscape
 187

Se le cte d bi bl i ogr a ph y

2008

2008 AIA San Francisco Design Awards. California Home + Design, May 2008, 134.

Culvahouse, Tim, ed. The View from the Landscape, arcCA, Summer 2008, 1415.

Hines, Susan. Residential Design: Pacific Heights Residence. Landscape Architecture, February 2008, 2630.

Hines, Susan. Triumph in the Tenderloin. Landscape Architecture, February 2008, 10613.

Kirkland, John. Light Fantastic. Portrait of Portland, June 2008.

Orr, Stephen. A Sustainability That Aims to Seduce. New York Times, August 21, 2008.

2007

Bouverat, Beau (director) and Olshansky, Jordan (producer). Design Leaders. San Francisco: video at
http://www.dwell.com, July 2007.

Bradley-Hole, Christopher. Making the Modern Garden. New York: Monacelli Press, 2007, 16263.

Burkhardt, Paul. ASLA 2007 Professional Awards: General and Residential Design Honor Awards. Landscape
Architecture, July 2007, 110, 116.

Cohen, Edie. Laser-Sharp. Interior Design, February 2007, 18088.

Conran, Terence and Gavin Diarmuid. Outdoors: the Garden Design Book for the Twenty-first Century. New York:
Monacelli Press, 2007, 8, 17881.

Fortnam, Joanna. Subtle & Sculptural: ASLA/Garden Design Residential Award of Honor. Garden Design.
November 2007, 83.

Lowry, Patricia. San Francisco Landscape Architect Wins Contest to Remake Allegheny Plaza. Pittsburgh Post-
Gazette, November 9, 2007.

2006

2006 National Design Awards, Dwell, October 2006, 92.

Bahamon, Alejandro. Small Private Gardens. New York: teNeues, 2006, 2025.

Bishop, Deborah. Artistic Expansion. Dwell, May 2006, 214.

188

Canizares, Ana G. Outdoor Spaces: Good Ideas. Collins Design, 2006, 27275.

Childrens Maze Garden. International New Landscape, June 2006, 5154.

Fortnam, Joanna. Skylight. Garden Design, January 2006, 65.

Fusari, Roberta, ed., Giardini. Milan, Italy: Federico Motta Editore, 2006, 3845.

Hayes Valley Roof Garden. International New Landscape, February 2006, 61.

Joyce, Alice. A Sampling of Gardens. San Francisco Chronicle, August 23, 2006.

King, John. Curran House. Architectural Record, February 2006, 11013.

Landscape Architecture Review 2006: The American Green. Home Review, 1317.

Orr, Stephen. The Nature of Intuition. House & Garden, August 2006, 108115.

Schleifer, Simone, ed., Pools & Gardens. Theodore, Alabama: Evergreen Press, 2006, 234237, 242245.

Sullivan, Jenny. Curran House Apartments. Builder, October 2006, 198.

Vega, Cecilia M. A New Oasis in Tenderloin. San Francisco Chronicle, March 22, 2006.

Walter, Betsy. Avant-Gardening. Four Seasons Magazine, Summer 2006, 128131, 134.

Whitely, Peter O. and Jim McCausland. Cool Off, Sunset, June 2006, 15051.

2005

Bakovic, Francisca. Luz Verde Para Experimentar. Vivienda y Decoracion, March 2005, 12225.

Bishop, Deborah. Raise the Roof. California Home & Design. May 2005, 108115.

Bishop, Deborah, The New Suburbanism, Dwell, January/February 2005, 11826.

Bizjak, Marybeth. Work of Art. Sacramento Magazine, May 2005, 150154.

Bonar Swezey, Lauren. Western Garden Design Awards: Excellence in Small Space Category for Pacific Heights
Residence and Excellence in Small Space Category for Hayes Valley Roof Garden, Sunset, March 2005,
9495, 102.

Carlock, Marty. The Fleeting and the Steadfast. Landscape Architecture, April 2005, 108117.

De la Batut, Virginie. Jardins Inspires, Jardins Passion & Decoracion, January/February 2005, 1011.

King, John. 310 Waverley. Architectural Record, October 2005, 226229.

Orr, Stephen. 50 New Taste Makers: The Space Maker. House & Garden, January 2005, 118119.
 189

Smolek, Dena. Garden. California Home & Design, July 2005, 11415.

Valerio, Lucia. Le meravigliose terrazze di Alice. VilleGiardini, April 2005, 140141.

2004

Award of Merit: Pacific Heights Residence, Landscape Architecture, September 2004, 100.

Bishop, Deborah. Landscape Architecture 101. Dwell, July/August 2004, 138 and 144.

Harpur, Jerry. Gardens in Perspective: Garden Design in Our Time. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2004, 9495.

2003

Carber, Kristine. Up On the Roof. San Francisco Chronicle, June 11, 2003.

Hartle Luplow, Heather. From Here to Healdsburg. 7 x 7, February/March 2003, 96103.

Sardar, Zahid. The High Life. San Francisco Chronicle, March 30, 2003.

2002 and earlier

Brown, Patricia Leigh. Wine Country Comforts. Architectural Digest, December 2002, 92, 94, 102.

Donnally, Trish. Andrea in Wonderland. Paper City, November/December 2002, 22.

Conran, Terence and Dan Pearson. The Essential Garden Book. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998, 58, 63, 90, and 92.

Trulove, James Grayson. The New American Garden: Innovations in Landscape Architecture. Whitney Press, 1998,
5055.

Stevens, David. Roof Gardens, Balconies and Terraces. New York: Rizzoli, 1997, 32.

Sullivan, Chip. Drawing the Landscape. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997, 266.

Cooper, Guy and Gordon Taylor. Paradise Transformed: The Private Garden for the Twenty-first Century. New York:
Monacelli Press, 1996, 16675.

Delaney, Cochran, and Castillo. Sanctuary. Design Quarterly 169, Summer 1996, 132.

Leccese, Michael. The New American Landscape. Paris: Telleri Editions, 1990, 13035.

Viladas, Pilar. San Francisco Skyline: Crisp Geometries on Telegraph Hill. Architectural Digest, August 1997,
7887.
190

I M A GE CREDITS

PHOTOGRAPHS

Front Matter
Marion Brenner, pp. 2, 6, 8, 13, 14, and 23; Alice Chung, p. 12; Helen Eging, p. 17; Art Gray, p. 18; Holly Stewart, pp.
10, 20, and 24.

Walden Studios
Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture, pp. 37 top left, 38 right, and 41 bottom left; Marion Brenner, pp. 3136, 37
bottom right, 38 left, 39, 41 bottom right, and 43; Daryl Carrington, p.41 top right; Emily Rylander, pp. 37 top right
and 42.

Brookvale Residence
All photographs by Marion Brenner.

Childrens Garden
Marion Brenner, p. 65 bottom left; Helen Eging, pp. 57, 59, and 65 bottom right; Ken Gutmaker, pp. 6061 and 65
top left; Holly Stewart, pp. 58, 63, and 64.

Perry Residence
Marion Brenner, pp. 67, 69, 70 right bottom and top, 7273, and 75; Alice Chung, pp. 68 right, 70 bottom left, 71,
and 74; Art Gray, p. 68 left and middle; Ryan Hughes, p. 77.

Curran House
Marion Brenner, pp. 7980 and 8387; Brian Rose, p. 86 top left; Emily Rylander, p. 81 right.

Hayes Valley Roof Garden

Marion Brenner, pp. 89, 95, and 97 left top and bottom; Jerry Harpur, pp. 90 and 91 right; JD Peterson, pp. 9293;
Holly Stewart, pp. 96 and 97 right top and bottom.

Ward Residence
Massimiliano Bolzonella, pp. 101, 103 bottom, 104, and 107; Marion Brenner, pp. 99 and 105106; Helen Eging, pp.
100 and 103 top; Ryan Hughes, p. 109 left and right; Robert Schlatter, pp. 108 and 109 center.

Portland Art Museum

Yalcin Erhan, pp. 111113, 117119; Jerry Harpur, pp. 114115.
 191

Ross Residence
All photographs by Saxton Holt.

Peninsula Residence
All photographs by Marion Brenner.

Stone Edge Vineyard

Marion Brenner, pp. 146 bottom, 148151, 153, and 161 top right; Emily Rylander, pp. 146 top, 154 left, 155157, and
163 top right; Vicky Sambunaris, pp. 143145, 147, 154 right, 159160, and 162.

Project Credits
Marion Brenner, pp. 183, 184 center, 186 center and bottom; Helen Eging, pp. 184 top and 185 center; Yalcin Ehran,
p. 185 bottom; Jerry Harpur, p. 185 top; Saxon Holt, p. 186 top; and Emily Rylander, p. 184 bottom.

RENDERINGS

Ross Hansen, pp. 40, 48, 62, 76, 82, 94, 102, 116, 126, 136, 152, 158, and 171181.
192

Sta ff M e mbe r s
19982008

Mutsuko Adachi, Paola Alfani, Susan Antonick, Whitney Armstrong, Katherine Bennett, Alice Chung, Andrea Cochran,
Kathleen Collins, Jana Balik FitzGerald, Rebecca Fuchs, Ross Hansen, Susan Hughes, Sarah Keizer, Amir Kunin, Ines
Lejarraga, Shelley Martin, Diana Maynard, Ana Miller, Dirk Moyer, Mary Muszynski, Lauren Ross-Miller, Emily Rylander,
Elaine Shaw, Adam Schatz, Ryan Shubin, Julian Simeoni, Allyson Steinberg, Tom Taylor, Horngsheng Tu, Pei Ying
Wang, Alexis Woods.