Beverly Hills: bare lot to pool surround and outdoor room

One drawing, one team

This is the argument for design-build in one backyard. The deck around the water, the seat walls, the slope planting, and the lighting were drawn together and built by one team, so nothing had to be retrofitted around someone else's finished work.

When a pool contractor finishes and leaves, the landscape is usually what absorbs the compromises: deck elevations that do not meet the grade, equipment in the wrong place, no conduit run for lighting. We build the surround, not the shell, which is exactly why we would rather be on the drawing before the shell goes in than called afterwards to work around it.

The outdoor room under string lights is the part the family uses every week. It exists because it was in the plan from the first sketch, not added once the pool was already in the ground.

What went into the backyard

• Pool deck, coping, and surround
• Paver terraces
• Seat walls
• Planted slopes
• Outdoor room and string lighting
• Irrigation and drainage