STYLE / GARDENS : CULTIVATING AN EAST COAST ACCENT : Memories of Home Transform a Wild Landscape Into a Lush Retreat in the Hollywood Hills
When easterners Claudia Weill and Walter Teller moved west, they brought their garden memories with them--rustling trees, big lawns, cobbled walks and seasonal flower beds reminiscent of Westchester, New York, and Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Looking for that same garden aesthetic here, they fell in love with this house in the Hollywood Hills. The grounds felt like an old woodland, overgrown with mature trees and pittosporum. But while the couple appreciated the wild look, they found that the landscape needed shaping for California’s year-round outdoor lifestyle.
Over a period of seven years, with the help of Santa Monica garden designer Nancy Goslee Power, they set about chopping their densely shaded three-quarters of an acre into usable rooms: a flowery entry court and a secret garden (both of which have fountains and were designed by Power with architect Brian Tichenor), a walled dining patio and a sunny pool terrace. They also carved out playing fields for their sons, Elijah, 7, and Sam, 9, along with vegetable beds and a fruit orchard. Along the way, they opened up views of the surrounding hills, creating a connection with the natural world beyond their green enclosure.
For Weill, a film director, the variety of views was critical. “The garden unfolds as you travel through it,” she says. “It’s full of mystery and surprise.” Also important to Weill and Teller, an entertainment lawyer, was to offer their children the intense relationship to the outdoors that they enjoyed during childhood. Weill and Teller added windows and doors to the house for more light and greater access to the garden. They replaced a dilapidated pool with what now looks like a country pond set in Appalachian bluestone and edged with santolina and kangaroo paws. In a nod to East Coast landscaping, the couple insisted on a lush lawn and plenty of climbing trees, though they encouraged Power to introduce them to plants at home in California as well. She did. Now aloes spike up from a flood of snow-in-summer along a stairway, and giant agaves and dark aeoniums cast shadows on a yellow wall. Power also, at their request, gave the garden seasons--via winter bulbs, deciduous fruit trees and lots of spring-blooming perennials.
With places to eat, play, lounge and work outside throughout the year, the family seldom misses what they left behind. “People who’ve known me since I was a child,” Weill says, “tell me this looks like my parents’ garden in Westchester. It doesn’t. It’s even wilder.” Even better.
