Small-Space Backyard Makeover Wins Annual Landscape Award
Architectural Gardens of Lake Forest Illinois Wins ILCA Gold Award for Backyard Makeover
Lake Forest, IL, June 06, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Architectural Gardens of Lake Forest, Illinois has won an Excellence in Landscape Award transforming a featureless backyard into an urban-like outdoor living area.
The annual competition among the landscape industry’s elite is a showcase of the Chicago area’s most beautiful gardens and outdoor spaces. AG’s award-winning project, entitled The Modern Garden was styled to bring the feeling of an urban rooftop garden to a standard suburban backyard.
Owner and designer Margaret Morrissette removed all traces of a typical suburban backyard – lawn, deck, storage shed, and paving brick. The re-design effectively screens out views of the neighbors’ houses and garages and instead focuses on the space within, particularly the ground plane. The surrounding mature trees in the neighborhood are metaphorically like the skyscrapers of the famous Chicago skyline.
The small square yard was subdivided into distinct outdoor rooms for grilling and dining, a place for growing herbs (potted), a teen lounge, and a comfortable area for entertaining guests around a large masonry fireplace. Structures and surfaces serve dual purposes; the tall fireplace serves as a privacy screen, large tubs of culinary herbs divide the grilling area from the dining area, the patio surface of natural stone adds beauty - both unifying and sub-dividing the space according to use, as well as directing flow. Trees inserted between spaces act like architectural columns and help to balance the mass of paving stone, while adding softness.
A photo exhibition of the best of the 2012 Excellence in Landscape Awards winners, including Morrissette’s The Modern Garden rotates between venues such as the Oak Park Conservatory, the Chicago Flower & Garden Show, the Merchandise Mart, the Morton Arboretum, as well as making appearances at top garden centers and other venues all year long. Both the awards competition and the photo exhibition are operated by the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association. For more information go to their website at: www.ilca.net and click on the Awards tab.
Architectural Gardens, founded by Margaret Morrissette in 1997 offers residential landscape design/build services to Chicago’s northshore area. Her business is a member of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association, the Landscape Design Association, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Lake Bluff/Lake Forest Chamber of Commerce, and has an A-rating from the Better Business Bureau. Morrissette grew up in nearby Deerfield, IL and currently lives with her husband in Lake Bluff, IL.
“Before” and “After” images of AG’s award-winning project can be viewed at: http://www.architecturalgardendesign.com/2012_IILCA_Awards.html
Please contact Margaret Morrissette via phone or email for high res images or more information
The annual competition among the landscape industry’s elite is a showcase of the Chicago area’s most beautiful gardens and outdoor spaces. AG’s award-winning project, entitled The Modern Garden was styled to bring the feeling of an urban rooftop garden to a standard suburban backyard.
Owner and designer Margaret Morrissette removed all traces of a typical suburban backyard – lawn, deck, storage shed, and paving brick. The re-design effectively screens out views of the neighbors’ houses and garages and instead focuses on the space within, particularly the ground plane. The surrounding mature trees in the neighborhood are metaphorically like the skyscrapers of the famous Chicago skyline.
The small square yard was subdivided into distinct outdoor rooms for grilling and dining, a place for growing herbs (potted), a teen lounge, and a comfortable area for entertaining guests around a large masonry fireplace. Structures and surfaces serve dual purposes; the tall fireplace serves as a privacy screen, large tubs of culinary herbs divide the grilling area from the dining area, the patio surface of natural stone adds beauty - both unifying and sub-dividing the space according to use, as well as directing flow. Trees inserted between spaces act like architectural columns and help to balance the mass of paving stone, while adding softness.
A photo exhibition of the best of the 2012 Excellence in Landscape Awards winners, including Morrissette’s The Modern Garden rotates between venues such as the Oak Park Conservatory, the Chicago Flower & Garden Show, the Merchandise Mart, the Morton Arboretum, as well as making appearances at top garden centers and other venues all year long. Both the awards competition and the photo exhibition are operated by the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association. For more information go to their website at: www.ilca.net and click on the Awards tab.
Architectural Gardens, founded by Margaret Morrissette in 1997 offers residential landscape design/build services to Chicago’s northshore area. Her business is a member of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association, the Landscape Design Association, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Lake Bluff/Lake Forest Chamber of Commerce, and has an A-rating from the Better Business Bureau. Morrissette grew up in nearby Deerfield, IL and currently lives with her husband in Lake Bluff, IL.
“Before” and “After” images of AG’s award-winning project can be viewed at: http://www.architecturalgardendesign.com/2012_IILCA_Awards.html
Please contact Margaret Morrissette via phone or email for high res images or more information
Contact
Architectural Gardens
Margaret Morrissette
847.691.7345
www.architecturalgardendesign.com
Margaret Morrissette
847.691.7345
www.architecturalgardendesign.com
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