The client had a picture of work he had seen in new england, some of my colleug work, and I knew it could be replicated. We used a local distributor of an angular/rectilinear granite that is hard, allowing us to hammer on chisels and shape the stone without compromising the integrity of the stone.

We designed and created a few mock-ups for the client to approve and for us to see how much work it would be. e built the first retaining wall in the spring alongside the driveway using a traditional dry-laid method. Each of the stones are laid level, but we had to step up the non-traditional coursing because the driveway was sloped. Once we got to the top, we tapered the capstones to follow a long slope using a double wythe coping style.

The tapered top flows with a property that is on a hill as well as a driveway that slopes towards the street. We built the end of the wall protruding from the slope of the lawn in order to see the thickness of the wall and show off the beuty of a real wall “cheek”.

In the backyard, we used the same new england granite and used as chunky and thick of pieces rather than long pieces. Again we tapered the step buttress and used a double wythe coping. The real beauty are in the corners, including an inside and outside 90 and 45.

The rest of the backyard was finished off with a stainless steel water fountain and bluestone patio to match the bluestone steps.