APLD ~ APLD Members ~ Member of the Month

APLD Members ~ Member of the Month

Donna Giguere, APLD
Featured Member, APLD Website, October 2007

Transformations-Before and After- Photos and Stories

A new entry to your home with its surrounding landscape can change the way you feel every time you come home. You say, “This is where I live”, and it feels good. An updated landscape, architectural details, lighting and paint can give your home a refreshing, new identity. It is a reflection of who you are, not the previous owner. It provides aesthetic and economic value to your home. Improving your home’s curb appeal can be an uplift to the street and community where you live and it will keep the neighbors talking and contemplating a change for themselves.

Here are five examples of front entry transformations:

The homeowners lived here 25 years and were ready for a change. This 1960’s ranch house had an outdated colonial motif that was a theme of their housing development. One problem was, instead of taking the main entry path visitors tended to walk up the driveway and across an annoying little path in front of the window above the kitchen sink. I imagine it was not too private, especially in the morning. Entrance paths, a pergola, and courtyard (with the secondary path from the drive being moved in front of a low wall), created a new look and privacy for the homeowners. Colorful, updated plantings, a different paint scheme and Arts & Crafts lights brought cohesiveness to the home’s new identity.

This 1980’s home was below the grade of the street and the steps down to the front door were precarious. The steps took the steepest route straight down to the front porch. In addition, the owners also had to look out and up at this uninspiring yard from their windows. The house was very tall, plain and flat and it needed some horizontal banding to give it interest and bring it visually down to earth. The steps were re-routed with broad treads and a low rise. Instead of a straight-shot to the front door, the entry path became a journey through textural plantings, boulders and past a bubbling water rock. A pergola accentuated the horizontal plane on the house and created a new porch. In addition, the new paint scheme gave this home a new persona.

This 1930’s Tudor Style home had a useless sloping front lawn and yard for which the owner practically had a hernia every time he mowed it. A lot of time and energy was spent on something that did not have rewards. The front steps were sloped, the risers were varied (the poor mail carrier) and visually they looked like a limp noodle. The home has some lovely-shaped windows that were obscured by overgrown shrubs. A new entrance path starts centered on the arched-window and meanders up to the front door in perfect cadence with all steps of the same rise. Low stone walls and boulders create curving planting terraces. Colorful plants requiring low-maintenance have taken the place of lawn. A stepping-stone path crosses a river-cobble dry-stream bed that collects and distributes downspout water. The path terminates at a bench in a peaceful setting.

This 1930’s Tudor Style home has a very steep and shallow front yard. The old stone stairway was an accident waiting to happen. All the treads were uneven and the steep risers varied, often as high as 8 inches! The old handrail was hanging by a thread. Lighting was hideous. Boulders retaining the variety of plantings were dumped like a pile of rocks that had been there for many years. Plantings were a cornucopia of genus. Invasive English ivy engulfed the beds and rocks. The entire front yard had to be deconstructed and rebuilt piece-by-piece. A new curving staircase with a longer run, approaching from an angle, allows the risers to be of a more reasonable height. Fitted boulders retain terraces and the steps. A dry-set basalt rock wall set at the sidewalk reduces steepness in the beds and allows planting. Simple understated lighting increases safety and accents the new landscape. The colorful masses of new plantings will eventually knit and cover the slope.

This Mid-Century Modern home had been totally restored on the inside but, unfortunately, the outside had been ignored. There was nothing of merit worth saving except some boxwoods and a dwarf apple tree. The entrance path was slippery pea gravel-it was like walking on beads! This home was obviously custom-built and architect –designed. It was about time to have the front entry and landscape do justice to the architecture. A new low-slung brushed-concrete retaining wall repeats the low, horizontal roofline of the home. Incised lines in the wall compliment the home. A new aggregate entrance path and steps of meandering geometry bring you up the lawn level. Further steps arrive at a front door landing. A secondary path from the front door landing to the driveway is fully wheelchair accessible. This brings additional value to the home. The homeowner’s love of traditional and nostalgic plants with a delight of the new and unusual brought a fusion of planting styles together for this home.

Learn more about our Member of the Month!

Donna earned an art degree in sculpture from Oregon’s Portland State University while also studying and practicing horticulture. She received her landscape design education from landscape architects at Clackamas Community College. Her artistic ability won her awards in sculpture and in landscape design at the 2001 Portland Home and Garden Show. There she was awarded the Landscape Design Award presented by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, (APLD). Her display garden, consisting entirely of native plants, was presented with the Wildlife Habitat Award and the Water Wise Gardening Award. In the 2005 Portland Home and Garden Show Donna's garden was awarded the Silver Award for her display garden, the Palette Award for use of color, and the Art Award. Donna was an OSU Master Gardener volunteer for 11 years and is highly supportive of the program. She has been a volunteer for Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden for 12 years and is curator of trees at the garden. She has published a booklet on trees in that garden and is highly respected for her knowledge of plants, planting design and the pruning of rhododendrons and other shrubs and trees. She is certified by APLD and is a founding member of the Oregon chapter. She currently serves as Past President of that organization.

She can be reached at 503 777-1177

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Certified Members seeking to be profiled should send before and after photos with SHORT design intent statement to:

Bethany Dennis
APLD Communications Manager
Email: communications@apld.org
Phone: 717-238-9780

* PHOTOS SHOULD BE CLEAR COLOR PRINTS OR JPEG COMPRESSED FILES