Ann Kearsley Design

AKD ‘Best of Houzz 2013′ winner!

admin — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:11:05 +0000

Houzz is a leading online platform for home remodeling information and inspiration, with over 11 million monthly users connecting with more than 1.5 million remodeling and design professionals.

Site Plan

admin — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:34:05 +0000

The 10 acre landscape of Nearmerezero is part of an old farm. Acreage in hayfields, shared with neighbors, is cut annually for hay. The stream running through the site was impounded with an earthen dam in the 1970′s to create a swimming pond. While ongoing erosion of the pond edge and storm water runoff from a shared driveway have led to siltation in the pond, the existing landscape of field, pond and stream provides tremendous habitat resources for wildlife, including numerous bird species, deer, foxes, frogs, toads, snapping turtles, muskrats and a long illustrious line of extremely determined beavers. The landscape design for Nearmerezo focuses on stormwater management to improve a pond and stream’s water quality and to develop habitat resources for all residents, including the humans.

Episcopal Diocese of Ohio Camp & Retreat Ministry

admin — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:09:41 +0000

AKD partnered with GO Logic, LLC of Belfast, ME to develop a Master Plan for a new summer camp and retreat center proposed by the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. The goals of the new facility are to integrate spiritual growth, social justice and fidelity to the environment by creating a ministry centered around sustainable farming. AKD and GOL worked with EDoOH to articulate detailed project programming and sustainability goals. These goals are incorporated into the Site Plan for the 140 acre project site using principles of landscape ecology: primary program elements are located within an ‘Expanded Edge’, a transitional habitat zone between farm fields and forest. The Master Plan includes proposals for landscape development, architecture, forest management and sustainable farm operations, as well as project pricing and implementation phasing.

Project Overview

admin — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:07:35 +0000

GO Logic, LLC • Architecture & Construction • Belfast, ME

Episcopal Diocese of Ohio Camp and Retreat Farm Project

TerraHaus wins 2012 EcoHome Grand Award!

admin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:52:32 +0000

http://www.ecohomemagazine.com/award-winners/terrahaus-unity-maine.aspx

Bright Built Barn

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:36:27 +0000

A cross disciplinary collaboration to design and build an ecologically sustainable, pre-fabricated small building with net zero carbon emissions. AKD worked closely with client, architect and builder throughout the project, ensuring a well-coordinated construction staging and planning process that minimized damage to the existing, beautiful native Maine landscape. AKD developed a post-construction landscape restoration plan re-establishing the original plant community and adding new native species to increase food reserves for local animal and insect populations.

Garden for a Gardener

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:36:10 +0000

This home in a long-established seaside summer community was designed with two primary facades: one side faces the public street, the other a small private golf course. The landscapes on either side of the building are open to the view of passersby, and the formal differences of layout and materials reflect the distinction between the general public space of the street and the more intimate public space of the golf course community. Both sideyards are very narrow, placing the neighbors in close proximity to one another. A birch grove planted along the western border surrounds a small garden room, creating an experience of being inside a woodland from inside the house, while screening the neighbor’s driveway. Along the eastern sideyard, a crushed shell path bounded by narrow arborvitae winds through a grey foliage garden to the kitchen door.

Chanticleer Farm

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:35:15 +0000

A rambling old farmhouse and barn, Chanticleer Farm was renovated and reconfigured into three rental units. The redesigned building and landscape continue to express the overall clarity and formal simplicity of the original farmstead. Vertical layering of shrubs and trees in the narrow space between driveway and building creates privacy, while the mass of the drylaid stone wall establishes a clear boundary and allows for a sharp contrast between the lush color and fragrance of the gardens and the minimal materials palette of the driveway and parking areas. An orchard of New England heirloom apple varieties now grows on a south facing slope near the barn, and the existing field continues to provide important habitat resources for local birds and animals.

Casco Bay Garden

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:34:41 +0000

At this private residence along the shores of Maine’s Casco Bay, a mass planting of hundreds of daylilies surrounds the driveway on all sides, using the continuous plane of grassy foliage and an annual exploding jewel box of color to clarify the area of arrival and entry. On the water side, a robust planting of large perennials frames the view out of the lower storey windows and from the upper terrace.

Maritime Woodland Garden

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:34:26 +0000

Building on the Client’s desire to maintain the ‘woods as woods,’ the garden for a new residence along the coast in Downeast Maine is designed as an amplification of the materials and experiential qualities of the pre-construction site conditions. Along the road, the proposal includes a series of coppiced stands of Moosewood or Striped Maple underplanted with Cinnamon Fern and Bowman’s Root. In the Woodland Garden between the house and the shore, the forest floor is planted with native, herbaceous plants in a series of bands that radiate out from the house under the existing tree canopy towards the water. Although the initial linearity of these bands will become less prominent over time, the plantings will continue to be dominated by the three species in our design – an echo of intention and evidence of a constructed geometry that signifies the distinction between garden and wildland.