Our work was in collaboration with the landscape designer and the home owners. They were not sure that there were any contractor that would be able to construct their ideas or any installers who had experience installing stone structures such as a moon gate.

This backyard has a theme of the meandering walk, as if a child and do not need to be home in quick time. Lots of swirls and cirles and paths that deliberately cause you to take time for yourself. The walkways are done with a reclaimed st. paul street granite cobble stone, laid in a flowing pathway pattern. Each path has a semi-circular seating wall constructed using a traditional drystone method. The materials are a reclaimed local natural limestone capped with a flatter, more uniform stone to allow for comfortable seating.

As the walkway continues into the yard, the focal point is on the traditional drystone moongate. Our team hand chiseled each voussoir into a wooden frame called falsework. Once all the stones had been carefully placed, we took the form out and the stones remained in place, and will remain in place well past our lifetimes. Drylaid structures can move with the environment including special features.

We wanted to include other sculptural features, and include some variants in walling styles, so on the adjacent bench we included a seating wall using fonddulac limestone set on end at an angle, which raps around without the need of a traditional capstone. The bluestone patio creates a more irregular pattern, the linear drystone walls, the seating wall at an angle, all lend for lines in all directions. This we designed into our pizza oven stonework as well. There are multiple lines in the stonework and almost perpendicular angles, but all work is in a sphere shape for the oven.