LOCATION: Old Westbury, N.Y.
COMPANY: Goldberg and Rodler
DETAILS: It’s more than a dream house; it’s a dream home, and that’s exactly what Goldberg and Rodler set out to do with their award-winning “Hilltop Chateau” project on New York’s Long Island.
However, making that dream a reality for the clients and their family wasn’t easy, says Ashley Haugsjaa, the company’s design office manager and landscape designer. The property hadn’t seen much work since the ‘70s, meaning plant/tree health was poor and the house needed to be completely torn down and redone. Not to mention the whole property is on a hill multiple stories above street level.
Working closely with the architects and clients, Goldberg and Rodler designed a new landscape that better took advantage of the hill the house sat on and added several new family-friendly features.
“What is important to the family is being able to go around the property and enjoy it,” Haugsjaa says. “You can enjoy nature in your own yard, and that was big for them.”
One of the main features was a basement garage on the new house, meaning roughly 1,000 yards of soil had to be cut out to make room for the garage and new parking court.
This also meant that the architecture could extend into the landscape, resulting in a pulled-out staircase leading to the front door, retaining walls that help with the house’s foundation, hill gradient and aesthetics, among other features.
Goldberg and Rodler won a gold award from the 2024 National Association of Landscape Professionals’ Awards of Excellence program for this project.
