Twachtman House Gardens

The Clapboard Residence is conceived as a retreat—quiet, enduring, and deeply connected to its surroundings. The eight-acre Greenwich site brings together two properties divided by a wooded wetland, a natural threshold that became a central organizing principle of the design. Its architecture and landscape are unified through a landscape-driven approach that works with this existing condition to establish a clear axial framework moving between cultivated and wild, formal and naturalized, structured experience and ecological process. A north–south and east–west axis further organizes the property, creating a legible structure that brings order, openness, and clarity to the overall composition. The landscape unfolds as a sequence of calibrated experiences—seasonal shifts, controlled light, attenuated sound, and framed perspectives—each reinforcing a coherent and intentional spatial narrative.

A clear vocabulary of edges and thresholds guides movement across the property. Affirming the Main House’s sense of permanence, the landscape operates through restraint: clipped hedges define space and views, low stone walls articulate grade changes, and fescue meadows soften the perimeter.An axial, timber bridge links the Main House to the Guest Cottage, while a perimeter path and trails to the ravine and pond form a legible circulation system that strengthens spatial relationships across the divided site.

Beyond these formal zones, the landscape shifts character. High-canopy groves open views toward the ravine and the adjacent Boys and Girls Club Preserve. The wetland corridor—rather than treated as an obstacle—becomes a filtering device, both ecological and visual, that screens neighboring properties while supporting native plantings responsive to the site’s hydrology. The Garage and Garden Shed are embedded within meadow expanses, allowing the landscape to mediate their presence.