Deborah Nevins & Associates

Working with Renzo Piano Building Workshop from the inception of the project, Deborah Nevins & Associates designed the landscape of this ranch set on an idyllic site in the Rocky Mountains. Our goal, and that of the architects and client, was to make the finished landscape look like we had done absolutely nothing, with the barn and residence appearing as though they had simply floated down and settled into a clearing in the hillside forest. To fit the house to the steep slope, we designed the site grading and walls, as well as its roadways and path systems. Grass terraces mediate between the slope and the house; with aspens planted in the interstices of the floating decks, the indoors and outdoors form a unified whole. Following the planting of over 1,500 young aspens, spectacular native oaks, and thousands of wildflowers and native shrubs, the designed landscape is a seamless extension of the natural environment.