Thank you .. ‘Dirt du Jour’

for the glowing review! "Go ask Alice ... where all the best vineyard gardens are. She's an erudite charmer; you'll have fun!"
Historic Gardens

Getty Villa: Elegant Symmetry .. Echoes Ancient Rome

Getty Villa … Malibu, California

Getty Villa Outer Peristyle Hedge and Pool © Alice Joyce

Located along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the Getty Villa first opened in 1974 as the original J. Paul Getty Museum; the architecture of the site patterned after the Villa dei Papiri – a Roman country house dating to the first century. The Villa closed for renovation in 1997,  just as The Getty Center opened to great fanfare in Los Angeles.

Getty Villa Outer Peristyle Pool © Alice Joyce

After a 12-year closure, the cultural cognoscenti were abuzz by 2006 as The Getty Villa reopened with stunning exhibition spaces; presenting an unparalleled showcase for Greco-Roman & Etruscan antiquities. An overall stunning redesign by architects, Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston received widespread praise.

Getty Villa Italian Stone Pine (Alice Joyce Photo)

An Italian Stone Pine graces an alcove near the entrance to the Getty Villa. In the skillfully balanced layout of the Outer Peristyle, pomegranate trees and Grecian laurels provide structure, abetted by sweet violets. The Outer Peristyle’s formal pool is edged in ivy topiaries, with Gallica, Damask and Musk roses creating background effects.

Getty Villa Trompe l’oeil Corridor © Alice Joyce

Long view of Outer Peristyle corridor  – ceiling adornment & inlaid design of walkways. Decorative paving emerges as another highlight in a circular seating area.

Getty Villa Decorative Paving  © Alice Joyce

Architectural embellishments link the interior of the Getty Villa Museum to the exterior spaces. An inlaid marble pattern replicates a floor in the ancient Villa dei Papiri, at the Villa’s Temple of Herakles.

Admission to the popular year-round destination is free, however, advance timed tickets are required.

Getty Villa Palms Outer Peristyle © Alice Joyce

The Outer Peristyle garden: Restored Tompe l’oeil detail pictured: Draped garlands, decorated columns and window cornices are among the peristyle’s ornate elements.

Getty Villa Trompe l’oeil Detail © Alice Joyce

The refined color palette of the Trompe l’oeil painting adds grace and beauty to the surroundings.

Getty Villa Inner Peristyle © Alice Joyce

The Inner Peristyle garden utilizes motifs from nature, such as Acanthus leaves. The intimate confines of this space center upon a lovely reflecting pool, with marble basins punctuating each corner of the garden.
Women drawn to a stream are replicated in the garden’s bronze sculptures.
Photo Below ~ Copyright Alice Joyce

Getty Villa Lion Fountain

The Lion Head Fountain adorns the Herb Garden, planted with medicinal, culinary, & species with religious significance. Fruit and fragrance meld here amid plums and limes, olive and quince, peach and fig trees; the earth blanketed in ground-c0vering lemon balm.

Read More… Getty Villa East Garden

2 comments - (Comments are closed)   Historic Gardens, Los Angeles, Southern California   , ,  
Landscape Architecture

Topher Delaney's 'Garden Play' - Cornerstone Sonoma

Garden Play by Topher Delaney  –  Seam Studio: Land Projects

TDelaney Garden Play – Photo Copyright Alice Joyce

Environmental artist; garden builder; sculptor: It’s not easy to fit Topher Delaney or the work produced by Seam Studio into a given category. Nor is it easy to describe Garden Play, Delaney’s installation created for Cornerstone Sonoma, where you will come upon gardens designed by world renowned landscape architects and designers.

Having been called beautiful and witty, Delaney’s design poses questions about the nature (pun intended) of a garden. Shade fabric, used on either side, closes off the space, while Bar Code 39 – illustrated along the back wall and made of recycled plastic lumber, indicates the symbolism/significance = to garden play. Have gardens become commodities?  How do you define a garden?

Topher Delaney ‘Garden Play’ Overview © Alice Joyce

Delaney planted eight birch trees: their white trunks and gestural branches repeating the white of the fabric enclosure on 2 sides. The ground plane, too, composed of crushed oyster shells, represents another bright white element. All these facets continually shift in tone; as rain falls in a cascade, clouds pass overhead, or the oftentimes brilliant rays of the sun burn down. Shadows from the trees and the oversize balls bring another lively aspect to the surroundings.

Take in the space from a seat on one of the woven spheres. Or, perhaps you’re more inclined to toss them about. Spare… minimal? Yes. Playful and provocative? Most definitely. Garden Play is one of numerous child-friendly environments at Cornerstone Sonoma, with its garden installations; fabulous bevy of shops for interior design and outdoor settings; SAGE cafe offering seasonal menus to delight foodies; wine tasting & the Sonoma Valley Visitors Center. A place where you’re likely to see kids interacting with the adults in-tow; enjoying opportunities to experience early-on the challenging notions associated with the art of gardens.

6 comments - (Comments are closed)   Landscape Architecture   , , ,  
Green Roofs/Vertical Gardens

Verdantly Vertical - Patrick Blanc Garden .. London's Athenaeum Hotel

Admittedly, I’m in thrall with Vertical Gardens: Exemplifed by the Living Wall or Mur Vegetal created by botanist/artist/passionate plantsman, Patrick Blanc for The Athenaeum Hotel Piccadilly, London.

Athenaeum London Entryway Roof Garden Photo © Alice Joyce

The garden Blanc created in 2009 for The Athenaeum had slipped past my radar, until it appeared like a vision before my eyes while riding atop one of London’s double-decker buses, my preferred mode of transport when time permits. The garden’s commanding verdant expanse wraps around a corner of the hotel building on Piccadilly Road. As well as the wall, the hotel’s entryway boasts a densely planted rooftop – pictured above: I was informed that the rooftop element had been added to the original plan after Blanc’s vertical garden revealed itself to be a distinctive addition to the Athenaeum’s facade. Choisya ternata – fragrant Mexican orange – appears among the rooftop plantings, and it seemed to be present in most every English garden I visited this past May.

Athenaeum Blanc Vertical Garden May 2010 Photo © Alice Joyce

By the way…. look for the story HERE  on Alice’s Garden Travel Buzz when Patrick Blanc creates his first U.S. West Coast garden, coming soon to the new Drew School building in San Francisco.

And, if you’re planning to visit London, you’ll surely want to visit the Kensington Roof Gardens!

Athenaeum Blanc Vertical Garden detail Photo © Alice Joyce

5 comments - (Comments are closed)   Green Roofs/Vertical Gardens, Hotels & Inns   , ,  
Newer Entries  
HOME
  Older Entries