Urban Chicago Home Gets a Poolside Retreat
From admin on June 30th, 2010 in Chicago
Urban designer manages to fit a swimming pool, lawn, garden and fountains onto a Chicago city lot
Creating a serene backyard retreat complete with a pool and dancing water feature is a complicated task. But doing so on an urban lot in Chicago, where space is tight and zoning laws are tighter, well, that takes complicated to a whole new level.
Realizing the constraints of their home’s existing landscape, Marc and Liza Brooks needed some intelligent minds to think past the obstacles. Luckily, the team at Garden Consultants was more than willing to take on the project.
The team opted for a space-saving design by foregoing a traditional pool deck. Instead, the water feature is set among the day lilies and perennials that lay against the fence. Then, a second feature was embedded in the lawn area.
Zoning laws dictating how close a pool can be to a lot line meant that this one had to be a meager 13 feet across. But they used the restriction to their advantage and planted plush greenery to cover the space between the pool and the fence. Among the additions: Swiss stone pine trees, European hornbeam trees, hydrangeas and tufted grass.
While space was limited in this backyard, not much was sacrificed on the design front. I would say that it’s as far removed from its urban landscape as humanly possible.
