ITALIAN RENAISSANCE : A Remarkable Restoration of an Old-Hollywood Garden on a Steep Hillside
ITALIAN GARDENS--like the ones that graced the Renaissance villas of Rome and Florence-- are the high-water mark of landscape design; there have been beautiful gardens since but few so lavish or architectural. The most remarkable example of this type of garden in Southern California is Villa Abbondanza, as it is now called. Built in the 1920s in the Laughlin Park area of Los Angeles, it borrowed many of its features from one of the most admired of the Cinquecento villas, Villa Lante (about 50 miles north of Rome), begun in about 1566.
Stephen Lenci purchased the house in 1979, when it was in near ruins, with the garden buried under mounds of Algerian ivy. That is part of the reason behind the name Villa Abbondanza, that being the name of the main street in Pompeii. Lenci has been renovating ever since.
The original designer, who is now unknown, carefully miniaturized many of the features found at Villa Lante, including the water chain--scalloped water basins that cascade down the hill. The original could barely hold its torrent of water; the smaller version merely trickles. He also used ingredients from other Italian gardens--including a cool, dramatic grotto--and then unabashedly added such details as arches usually seen in Moorish and Spanish gardens. But the overall style is Italian Renaissance, distinguished by a heavy reliance on straight-ahead sight lines and architectural angularity, and a flair for the theatrical. It is significant that the garden is built on hilly ground, because most of the Renaissance villas also were, which is where they found much of their drama.
The Italian Renaissance gardens were short on plants, which were seen only as architectural elements--backgrounds or ground coverings, living wall hangings or tapestries. Dark green foliage was preferred. That is where the restored Villa Abbondanza most abruptly departs from the theme of the Italian garden--the extremely varied and colorful plantings almost threaten to bury the architectural elements. Even the most knowledgeable of gardeners would find much to admire.
Lenci saved only a few half-wild pittosporums and then undertook the planting. While the house was under reconstruction, full-size palms and other large plants were carted in the front door and out the back, or hoisted over the roof by cranes, so they could become quickly established.
His imaginative choices of plants are carefully placed--a practice often overlooked in garden design. At every turn, at the end of every walk, another special plant can be discovered. Each one of the many vantage points in this stepped garden is fully exploited. Near the pavilion, at the top of the watercourse, sweet-scented plants predominate--gingers, gardenias and jasmine. Color lines the paths down the hill, and the grotto has become a place for orchids and bromeliads, which cling to the odd lava rocks used in its construction.
The part of the project that Lenci enjoyed most was finding artisans who could restore the architecture of the garden. To preserve the historical flavor, every effort was made to keep the reconstruction from looking too new. Fountains and watercourses, benches and sculpture were recast or repaired.
Lenci, a board member of the Los Angeles Conservancy, is often asked why he chose to restore and preserve a home and garden that is so theatrical, one that, rather than being a serious piece of architecture, mimics a style. His answer is that this property represents one of the more important periods in Los Angeles history, the era of Hollywood glamour and fantasy, and in that sense this garden is one of the better Hollywood fantasies. It is quite easy to imagine that you are someplace else at some other time--in the hills above Florence, for instance, in the 1500s.
Lenci has begun the restoration of yet another garden and home in the Hollywood Hills, but the new owners, Barry and Michele Sohnen, plan to preserve not only the original architecture, but the restorations and abundant plantings.
