From Neo-Georgian Order to California Wildness Garden

A Garden of Heritage, Art, and Evolving Life

A Neo-Georgian Revival Estate Garden in La Jolla

The residence possesses a distinctive Neo-Georgian / Colonial Revival character: architecture built upon proportion, hierarchy, repetition and an unmistakable sense of permanence. The challenge for LASD Studio was therefore not to place a new garden around an existing house, but to ask a more demanding question:

What kind of landscape could belong to this architecture so completely that house and garden would begin to read as one composition?

Neo Georgian Revival Garden with Hartley Botanic Orangery

Location: La Jolla, Southern California
Project Type: Private Residential Estate, Neo-Georgian Revival Garden
Design Scope: Estate Master Planning, Garden Design with Glass house - Orangery by Hartley Botanic, Planting Design, Hardscape Design and Coordination, Custom Architectural Details, Irrigation Strategy, Drainage and Stormwater Planning, Lighting Design, Habitat and Biodiversity Design, and Construction Documentation

Orangery: Bespoke Hartley Botanic Orangery, England
Construction: Landscape & Beyond, Project Management - John Beaudry
Construction cost: $850,000

Project Status: Built
Landscape Design Authorship & Project by: LASD Studio US and LASD Studio Spain
Landscape Designer: Yura Lotonenko

Video presentation of Neo- Georgian Revival Estate in La Jolla.

A Garden of Heritage, Art, and Evolving Life

Existing Condition

Slope Garden, untouched with potential.

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A Garden Imagined for Twenty Years

The project began with a deeply personal gesture. The owner approached LASD Studio with the wish to create a garden for his wife - a place she had imagined for more than twenty years. Their estate extends across a generous hillside in La Jolla, where the lower slope had remained a broad field of grass, difficult to enter and largely absent from the rhythms of daily life.

Her long-held wish became the emotional foundation of the design. We began with the proportions, symmetry and material language of the Neo-Georgian residence, allowing the garden to unfold across the slope as a sequence of destinations. Paths make the land accessible; terraces create places for conversation, dining and reflection; formal planting gives structure to the journey; and a bespoke Hartley Botanic orangery forms its horticultural heart.

As the garden moves deeper into the estate, geometry opens into flowering layers, meadow, habitat planting and the Pacific landscape. Architecture, horticulture and ecological process are woven into one living composition - a garden shaped for family life, cultivated over time, and rooted in the original promise from which the project began.

The Garden Unfolds Across the Slope

Concept visualization of the Neo-Georgian estate garden in La Jolla, showing how paths, planted terraces and formal garden rooms extend the residence across the hillside.

The Orangery as a Garden Destination

Concept visualization of the Hartley Botanic orangery framed by brick terraces, sculptural planting and the formal approach through the upper garden.

The Orangery Within the Landscape

A wider conceptual view of the orangery held among flowering trees, layered planting and the descending topography of the La Jolla estate.

The Lower Garden Beneath the Pines

Concept visualization of paths moving through layered planting under the mature pine canopy, creating a shaded passage toward the lower landscape.

A Circular Garden Room

Concept visualization of an intimate garden room shaped by clipped vegetation, soft planting and the filtered shade of existing trees.

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The First Garden Appeared in Drawings

While the slope still held only grass, the first three-dimensional studies gave the owners a way to enter the future garden.

Each view tested a real spatial decision: the distance between terraces, the height of retaining walls, the approach to the orangery, the rhythm of paths and the depth required for planting to create enclosure. The visualizations followed the movement of the eye as carefully as the movement of the body. They established when the orangery would first appear, how the architecture would frame it and where the Pacific landscape would begin to enter the composition.

The house provided the first measure through its symmetry, proportions, brickwork and iron detailing. Those architectural qualities extended into the garden through walls, steps, terraces and planted structure.

The images developed alongside the design. They allowed individual spaces to be examined while preserving the coherence of the estate as a whole.

An Estate Composed as a Holistic Sequence of Experiences

The master plan gathers the property into a clear spatial order.

The arrival garden and parterre remain closely connected to the Neo-Georgian residence. Geometry is legible here. Clipped planting defines the edges, paths establish direction and the proportions of the house continue into the landscape.

The dining terrace draws family life outdoors. It occupies the threshold between the residence and the wider estate, bringing planting, fragrance and seasonal change close to everyday routines.

Further into the property, the upper garden begins to respond to the scale of the land. Planting gains depth and movement. The composition becomes increasingly atmospheric as the paths descend toward the orangery, the lower garden and the Pacific view.

The slope gives the garden its pace. Each change in level reveals another space, and each space prepares the experience that follows.

The Idea Enters the Drawing Set

Once the spatial structure had been established, its consequences were developed at construction scale.

The CAD drawings coordinate grading, retaining structures, steps, paving, custom railings, lighting, irrigation, drainage and stormwater planning. These systems occupy the same ground, and every one of them influences the experience and long-term performance of the garden.

A railing determines safety, proportion and the rhythm of movement along a stair. The meeting of brick and stone carries the architectural language into the landscape. Drainage affects the life of a terrace long after its surface has been completed. Irrigation responds to planting zones, exposure and the changing water requirements of an establishing garden.

The construction documents hold these decisions together. They provide a common reference through which the larger composition can be understood, priced and built.

Planting Materials and Time

The planting plan carries the structure of the garden into season and growth.

Closest to the residence, planted forms reinforce the geometry of the architecture. Hedges, flowering compositions and carefully positioned specimens define the garden rooms and preserve important views. Their scale and density respond to the proportions of the terraces, paths and walls around them.

As the landscape extends across the estate, the planting develops greater movement and ecological depth. California-adapted and native species contribute flowering continuity, shelter and varied vegetation structure. Meadow conditions and habitat planting connect the cultivated garden with the wider living landscape.

Materials follow a related progression. Brick extends the architecture into terraces and retaining walls. Ironwork gives steps and edges a measured cadence. Stone, paving, glass and planted surfaces register changes in use, atmosphere and proximity to the house.

The material and planting studies were developed together. Growth, weathering, seasonal color and texture will continue to alter how the built geometry is perceived.

Planting the Hillside Garden

Work-in-progress photograph of planting installation beside the terraced garden steps, showing the first shrubs and flowering plants positioned across the La Jolla slope.

The Estate Planting Plan

Detailed planting plan coordinating trees, shrubs, flowering layers and individual garden rooms across the Neo-Georgian estate landscape.

Establishing the Garden Beneath Mature Trees

Work-in-progress photograph showing new planting positioned beneath the existing tree canopy, where shade, roots and topography shape the composition.

Lower Garden Planting Detail

Enlarged planting plan for the lower garden and curved path sequence, coordinating plant communities with existing trees, circulation and the changing levels of the estate.

Planting Plan Specs - How to Do !

Technical planting document bringing the selected plant palette, horticultural notes and reference imagery into one coordinated guide for procurement and installation.

The Orangery Within the Garden

The Hartley Botanic orangery occupies one of the most carefully composed points in the estate.

Its metalwork and glazing carry a long horticultural lineage associated with cultivation, collecting and the movement of plants between climates. In La Jolla, that tradition enters a garden shaped by California light, coastal conditions and the architecture of the residence.

Terraces, steps, retaining walls, custom railings, lighting and planting establish the orangery within the slope. Sculptural urns and formal vegetation create a cultivated foreground, while the surrounding paths connect the structure with the upper and lower gardens.

Inside, specially fabricated Hartley staging tables continue the same attention to horticultural craft at the scale of furniture. Their joints, metalwork and relationship with the planting contribute to the experience of the room.

The orangery has become a place for cultivation, retreat and gathering. Its architecture provides a focal point, and the garden gives it a setting.

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Construction Across the Slope

The construction photographs record a stage when the garden was closest to its anatomy.

Soil remained open. Retaining structures, drainage routes and irrigation lines were still visible. The alignment of paths could be read directly against the contours, and the relationship between each terrace and the slope became clear.

This stage reveals the coordination carried beneath the finished surfaces. Levels direct movement and water. Walls hold changes in elevation. Steps establish pace. Sleeves and service routes allow technical systems to cross the garden without interrupting its spatial order.

As construction progressed, the drawing set became physical. Brick lines defined the terraces, railings traced the changes in level and the orangery began to occupy its intended place within the estate. Planting then introduced depth, softness and seasonal movement into the constructed framework.

Building the Curved Garden Terraces

Work-in-progress view of curved masonry walls establishing level planting terraces across the La Jolla hillside.

Constructing the Terraced Garden Walls

Masonry construction defines the geometry and changing levels of the garden, preparing the structural framework for paths, planting and architectural finishes.

Drainage and Services Within the Slope

Excavated construction area showing pipes, service routes and layout markers coordinated with the future levels of the estate garden before backfilling.

The Orangery Terrace Under Construction

Elevated construction view showing brick paving, retaining walls and circulation beginning to establish the architectural setting for the Hartley Botanic orangery.

A Specimen Tree Ready for Planting

A mature specimen tree prepared for installation, bringing immediate canopy, scale and vertical structure into the developing garden.

The Garden Rooms Take Shape

Curved retaining walls hold the changing levels of the slope and define the future relationship between paths, planted areas and garden rooms.

Terraces Steps and Service Routes

Work-in-progress view of retaining surfaces and stepped circulation, with irrigation and drainage connections prepared before soil finishing and planting.

The Garden Begins to Live

- Where Art and Nature Evolve into Living Legacy

In its substantially completed state, the property can be experienced as a continuous landscape.

The formal gardens give the residence a clear setting. The dining terrace brings daily life into the open air. Paths make the hillside accessible and invite movement through the estate. The orangery creates a destination for cultivation and quiet occupation. Lower planting carries the composition toward meadow, habitat and the wider California landscape.

The garden is continuing to establish. Trees and hedges will gain volume, flowering layers will shift through the seasons and planted edges will gradually soften the constructed lines. Shade, habitat and enclosure will develop with them.

These changes belong to the design. The master plan provides a durable spatial structure, while planting, weather and family life continue to shape its character.

The Pacific Holds the Final View

At the ocean-view terrace, the composition becomes quiet.

The residence, formal gardens, upper terraces and orangery remain present through memory and movement. The immediate landscape opens, and the horizon assumes the largest role. Here, the Pacific becomes part of the estate’s visual structure.

The project began with a personal wish: to create a garden for a woman who had imagined one for over twenty years. The hillside can now be entered, walked and inhabited. It holds places for cultivation, conversation, reflection and family life.

That original promise remains at the heart of the garden - Orangery by Hartley Botanic, Design by LASD Studio.

Spiritual Rebirth: Ecological Sanctuary Estate - Landscape design in Encinitas, California

Where Art and Nature Evolve into Living Legacy

Location: Knightsbridge, Olivenhain, Encinitas, California
Project Type: Private Ecological Sanctuary Estate. Evolving Estate Landscapes & Ecological Sanctuary 
Design Scope: Complete Garden Design, Planting Design, Hardscape Coordination, Irrigation Strategy, Stormwater Planning, Construction Documentation
Status: Built / Installed
Construction: Contractor & Project Management by Client.
Construction cost: ~ $340,000
Design Studio: LASD Studio

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A Living Landscape for Restoration and Renewal

The Spiritual Rebirth Sanctuary Estate was conceived as more than a private garden. It is a living landscape designed to help its inhabitants slow down, reconnect with natural rhythms and experience the property as a continuous journey.

Set within the semi-rural landscape of Olivenhain in Encinitas, the garden brings together ecological California planting, productive garden spaces, water, sculpture and places for quiet daily life. The result is not one large decorative composition, but a sequence of distinct garden worlds held together by a gentle, continuous presence.

The idea of spiritual rebirth is expressed through movement and transition: from architecture into planting, from open lawn into intimate habitat, from dry stone into water, and from the productive landscape of herbs and fruit trees into spaces intended only for observation and stillness.

At LASD Studio, we believe gardens can become sanctuaries - places where people reconnect with nature, art, and themselves. The Spiritual Rebirth Sanctuary Garden in Encinitas was envisioned as more than a private garden: it is a living landscape of healing, renewal, and ecological balance.

Video presentation of the Spiritual Rebirth Sanctuary Garden in Encinitas, California - a meditative landscape design by LASD Studio featuring flowing pathways, water features, ecological planting for pollinators, and contemplative spaces that unite spirituality, biodiversity, and modern garden design.

An Estate Composed as a Journey

Rather than revealing the entire property at once, the design unfolds gradually with spaces and garden rooms.

Curved paths travel through the main garden and continually alter the visitor’s view. A flowering tree, pond, sculptural rock or distant terrace disappears and reappears as one moves. This principle of partial revelation gives the estate a sense of depth and discovery that a straight path could not create.

The primary path forms a continuous loop around the garden. It can be used as everyday circulation, but it also becomes a meditative walk: a place to move without a destination, decompress after a demanding day and allow the mind to return to a calmer rhythm.

There are no visual tunnels or long, static corridors. Every turn introduces a new relationship between planting, water, stone, architecture and sky.

Sanctuary Garden Water Feature with Blue Glass Sculpture

3D visualization of the Spiritual Rebirth Sanctuary Garden in Encinitas, featuring a symbolic water element with large Turkish-blue broken glass pieces, designed as a focal point to attract light and support ecological balance while enhancing wildlife-friendly habitats.

Sanctuary Garden Pavilion with Restorative Planting

Concept rendering showing the pavilion at the heart of the Spiritual Rebirth Sanctuary Garden, surrounded by biodiverse planting of native trees, perennials, and shrubs to restore pollinator populations and provide habitat for birds and butterflies.

Pathway Under Flowering Trees in Sanctuary Garden

Curved pathway lined with flowering trees in the Sanctuary Garden, designed to reconnect humans with seasonal rhythms while supporting biodiversity and wildlife corridors in Encinitas.

Sanctuary Garden with Native Planting and Wildlife Habitat

Perspective view of the Sanctuary Garden showcasing layered native planting, rewilded groundcovers, and flowering shrubs designed to regenerate soil health and provide food sources for local wildlife.

Sanctuary Garden Pond and Rock Habitat Design

Rendering of pond and rock features in the Sanctuary Garden, designed to collect stormwater, recharge the soil, and create diverse habitats for frogs, dragonflies, and songbirds.

Panoramic View of Spiritual Rebirth Sanctuary Garden

Wide garden perspective showing rewilded meadows, naturalized plant palettes, and water features that invite biodiversity, echoing the philosophy of landscapes as evolving ecological systems.

Sanctuary Garden with Residence Integration

Concept visualization integrating the Sanctuary Garden with the residence, where rewilding principles and ecological restoration transform the property into a living sanctuary for both people and wildlife.

Five Garden Worlds Within One Landscape

Herb Garden, Terrace and Orangery

The productive heart of the estate combines a herb garden, outdoor terrace and glass orangery.

The orangery extends the growing season and creates a protected place for plants, work and quiet observation. Outside, herbs and flowering plants surround a terrace where cultivation becomes part of daily life. The composition is productive, but never utilitarian: scent, texture, flowers and seasonal change transform the kitchen garden into one of the estate’s most atmospheric gathering places.

Lounge Lawn Beside the Residence

Close to the house, a purposeful lawn creates a clear and comfortable place for lounging, informal gatherings and time with family.

Instead of spreading lawn across the entire property, the design concentrates it where an open, soft surface contributes directly to how the garden is used. This restrained green plane provides visual calm beside the architecture and creates a deliberate contrast with the looser ecological planting beyond.

Pond and Biodiversity Garden

The pond forms one of the landscape’s quietest ecological zones.

Water, rocks, marginal vegetation and layered planting create different conditions for insects, birds and other wildlife. The surrounding landscape is allowed to feel softer and less controlled, giving the pond the character of a small habitat rather than a conventional ornamental feature.

From the walking path, the pond becomes a place to pause and observe reflections, movement and changing light. It brings another rhythm into the estate - slower, cooler and more contemplative.

Succulent Garden

A succulent garden introduces a more sculptural expression of Southern California’s dry climate.

Strong plant silhouettes, mineral surfaces and carefully positioned rocks create a composition that is visually precise without becoming sterile. This area offers a quieter seasonal structure and contrasts with the softer movement of flowering perennials and grasses elsewhere in the garden.

Orchard

The orchard gives the estate another productive and temporal layer.

Fruit trees provide blossom, summer shade, harvest and a visible record of the passing seasons. Over time, their canopies will become increasingly important to the spatial structure of the property, creating a garden that becomes richer and more established as it matures.

Conceptual Layout with Zones - Sanctuary Garden Encinitas

Conceptual garden design layout divided into functional zones, showing pathways, water pond, herb garden, and rewilding areas for biodiversity restoration in Encinitas, San Diego

Experience Plan – Sanctuary Garden Encinitas

Landscape architectural experience plan illustrating visitor journey through sanctuary spaces, including entry garden, water features, glass house, herb garden, and biodiversity-focused planting areas.

Overall Site Plan – Sanctuary Garden Encinitas

Full site plan of Sanctuary Garden project in Encinitas, integrating rewilding, bioretention ponds, ecological planting, and human-use spaces into a cohesive landscape architectural design.

Hardscape Plan – Sanctuary Garden Encinitas

Hardscape plan detailing pathways, retaining walls, terraces, and structural garden elements designed for usability, ecological balance, and biodiversity in a sanctuary-style garden.

A dry rock river moves through the garden and connects its different zones.

Functionally, it forms part of the site’s stormwater strategy. Visually, it becomes a continuous geological thread - a dry canyon passing through planting, paths and gathering spaces.

Large pieces of Turkish-blue sculptural glass are positioned among the boulders and illuminated after dark. During the day, the glass catches sunlight and introduces flashes of translucent color between the stone. In the evening, the pieces begin to glow, transforming the dry river into an atmospheric field of blue light.

This artistic intervention elevates the rock river beyond conventional drainage infrastructure. Stone, glass, shadow and reflected light create an almost celestial atmosphere, allowing the garden to remain alive and compelling after sunset.

Holding Stormwater Within the Estate

Stormwater is treated as a resource belonging to the landscape rather than something to be removed as quickly as possible.

Rainwater is directed toward the dry creek system, where its movement can be slowed and guided across the property. From there, water is collected within a larger retention area, reducing rapid discharge toward municipal drains or neighboring land.

This creates more time for water to settle and, where site and soil conditions permit, return gradually to the ground. The system combines practical stormwater management with the visual language of a natural Southern California canyon.

During dry weather, the rock river remains an important spatial and sculptural element. During rain, it becomes active infrastructure. The same landscape therefore performs differently in response to changing environmental conditions.

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Planting as an Evolving California Ecology

The planting composition is lush, calm and contemporary, while remaining connected to the ecology of coastal Southern California.

California native and climate-adapted plants are arranged in layered communities rather than isolated decorative specimens. Groundcovers protect and soften the soil. Perennials and flowering shrubs create seasonal nectar and seed. Grasses introduce movement, while trees and larger shrubs provide shade, shelter and long-term structure.

Bloom is distributed across the seasons so the garden can offer changing color and forage over an extended period. Depending on the final plant palette and surrounding habitat, this kind of planting can support monarchs, painted ladies and swallowtails, as well as native bees and other beneficial insects.

Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds may visit nectar-rich flowers, while black phoebes, house finches and lesser goldfinches can use the garden for insects, seeds, water and shelter.

At the upper levels of the local food web, the wider Olivenhain habitat mosaic may also be visited by Cooper’s hawks or red-tailed hawks. Their presence cannot be manufactured as a decorative effect. It becomes possible when the lower trophic levels- soil life, plants, insects, seeds, water and smaller birds, are functioning together.

This is the foundation of LASD Studio’s approach to Designing Landscapes as Evolutionary Systems. The objective is not to install a frozen picture, but to establish the conditions from which a richer living system can continue to develop.

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Considering an Ecological Estate or Sanctuary Garden?

LASD Studio designs private landscapes that bring architecture, daily life, water, planting and ecological processes into one coherent experience.

A preliminary conversation can help determine how your property could become a more restorative, biodiverse and enduring landscape.