Hoerr Schaudt Garden in Chicago's Lincoln Park

We saw the public parkway as a way to create a 'garden layer' in front of the home and to extend the garden into the public realm. The custom iron and stone-clad fence allow views in to the house and tie the architecture to the parkway planters along the sidewalk.

The limestone walk between the house and lawn features a mixed garden of perennials and annuals seen at right.

View of side lawn.

The strong geometry of the house is mirrored in the landscape. In some places it is softened or blurred by plantings, in others it is more pronounced.

Ipe-wood swing bench and climbing hydrangea on column. Hoerr envisioned a "hip porch swing" for the limestone-and-wood pergola; climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala ssp. petiolaris) and native wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) give the structure the mystery of a lost monument. In city gardens especially, he likes to create overhead privacy from nearby looming buildings.

View of drive court looking back to street.

Dining area in sunken gravel garden. The larger garden's climax is a cloistered gravel courtyard with areas for seating and outdoor dining that work equally well for a private tête-à-tête and for larger soirees. Music is provided by birdsong, or the stereo's outdoor-speaker system.

View from green roof of side lawn and seating area. The Eden Stone limestone terrace is shaded by a Magnolia x loebneri 'Merrill'.

Semel Snow, the project's interior designer, specified furnishings in the screened porch.

The pear tree allee continues behind the screened porch for a shady walk from the gravel garden to the side lawn. Water lettuce and papyrus populate the hypertufa pool.

Gravel garden dining table for eight.

Lady's mantle, lavender and blackberry lily grow up through the gravel. Hoerr's trademark is perhaps his muscular public plantings, but in the sunken garden his softer side shows with lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis), Stachys officinalis, 'Green Velvet' boxwood and blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis).

Gravel garden and screened porch.

The screened porch links this seating area and panel lawn with the gravel garden.

The knot bench is the centerpiece of a courtyard space along one side of the house.

Marble trough filled with a collection of succulents.

Courtyard bench at twilight.

Dahlia.

Dahlias, amsonia, and perennial geranium.

Groves underplanted with oakleaf hydrangea, birch and pachysandra at the front of the limestone house.

See more hydrangea flowers.

Giant slabs of stone and a large copper container of bromeliads balance the bold forms and scale of the home's architecture.

The calming rhythm of 'Chanticleer' Callery pears and Ligularia 'The Rocket drowns out the urban surroundings.