Old Quarry

Minimalist sculptor Tony Smith designed this house, in 1953, as part of a unique suburban subdivision set within a former waterfront quarry. During an exacting architectural renovation, we took the site’s own granite—quarry refuse and bedrock—as our primary medium, reordering and manipulating the stone to heighten the experience of the found conditions and to integrate the building volumes with the site’s larger patterns.

Where pockets of soil could be made within the rocky formations, new trees were planted as part of a woodland restoration. For each of the trees removed—mostly Norway Maples—a new diverse crop of trees, well-adapted to this environment, have been planted. On the ground plane, years of hand weeding and organic maintenance practices have conquered invasive exotics, allowing a seedbed of scrappy natives to take hold.

In areas disturbed by construction, herbaceous and woody plants that remain low to the ground—ferns, bearberry, lowbush blueberry—were selected to emphasize the shape of the ground itself and to preserve an open view corridor through the site. Sandy soils best suited to periodic inundation by tidal flux replaced the previous owner’s garden bed loam. Rainwater harvesting and reverse osmosis provide controlled irrigation to manage the intense swings in soil moisture endemic to this condition.

Our work creates occupiable ground for walking and exploring and a context strong enough to respond to the sculptural clarity of the building

Editing = Making

The landscape is a result of editing as much as making. A careful process of removals, especially of invasive exotics, shapes a fluid and continuous space of habitation below the canopy. On the ground plane, years of hand weeding and organic maintenance practices have conquered invasive exotics, allowing a seedbed of scrappy natives to take hold. Iterative and targeted interventions to the landscape continue to be investigated, responding to the homeowners use of the site.