Garden Finds: Rick Anderson

Using his surroundings as his laboratory, landscape architect Richard Anderson creates an oasis of calm amid the bustle of Buckhead

Approaching Rick Anderson’s home on Moores Mill, you’re immediately struck by the well-manicured courtyard, where perfectly symmetrical plantings create a sense of calm. But this landscape architect did more than surround his house with superb horticultural specimens. Instead, he and fiancée Viki Lauter carefully considered the home’s architecture and its landscape design as a whole, each ending up the better for it.


“This entire landscape has been an evolution,” he explains. “One of the most difficult clients I’ve ever had is myself because there are so many options! You only have this limited space, and you can’t do everything. So you’ve really got to be restrained. I think all landscapes are a series of outdoor rooms, so it’s all about definition of space—not really about the plant materials themselves. They are tools you can use to form space; trees can form a roof or canopy and hedges can create walls. Once you’ve got the space created, all you have to do is decorate it.”


But there’s nothing random about the placement of Anderson’s outdoor rooms. “Everything on this property is pretty much set up on axes, though they’re not necessarily evident. When you come down the stairs into the garden, looking across the millstone and through openings in the hedges, your view is terminated by the studio. In the house, there’s a fireplace that looks along the axis that terminates at the fountain. And the master bedroom wing has an axis that is terminated by a curved hedge.”

When all is said and done, this garden beautifully complements the house, and the house returns the favor.
 
Source: Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles