A Granite Garden for a Brooklyn Brownstone by KHoyt Architecture/ Landscape, PC and ERGO Architects

This garden and brownstone renovation provides three generations of a Brooklyn, NY family with a tranquil escape by harnessing the simplicity, restraint, and natural materials that are integral principles of traditional Japanese garden design.

The clients/ owners, who are originally from Japan, had lived in their Brooklyn Heights town house for years, raised their children there, and created a lush, traditional Japanese shade garden in their rear yard before deciding to undertake a bold, three-year renovation project that transformed their home into a multi-generational duplex.

The rear extension’s innovative design, by ERGO Architects, involved excavating much of their beloved garden to make room for an extension. The design for the addition creates additional space for them to live comfortably together by utilizing the home’s cellar and flooding it with natural light. This addition also provides a strong connection between the inside and outside: a sliding door weaves the double-height library to the reading terrace, the floating stone stair links the kitchen to the rock garden, and the top-floor living room opens onto the elevated terrace. The new mahogany-framed glass façade provides views of the family’s beloved Sophora japonica (Japanese Pagoda Tree).

KHoyt’s landscape design honors the original garden’s spirit while reinterpreting it for the site’s new grades and proportions. Drawing on her experience living in Japan and studying Japanese gardens, Kim Hoyt selected a unique palette of plant and paving materials that instilled the re-imagined, terraced outdoor space with the essential Japanese garden principles of Kanso, simplicity; Koko, austerity; and Shinzen, naturalness.

At the heart of the upper terrace stands a 50-foot-tall Sophora tree, which was carefully protected throughout construction. When prolonged COVID-related delays and site conditions placed the tree at risk from soil compaction and drought stress, KHoyt collaborated with arborists to restore it back to health through air-spading and precise pruning. Due to its sensitive root zone, traditional planting or paving near the tree was not feasible. In response, KHoyt incorporated gravel mulches in the spirit of karesansui (dry landscape gardens) to resolve the open areas around the tree and carried this element throughout both the upper and lower terraces. The dry landscape reduces the over-all irrigation requirements of the garden and specifically benefits the Sophora by reducing the risk of over-watering and root rot. This element also transforms the space into a serene, minimalist plane that supports the tree’s longevity while echoing the aesthetic and ecological aims of the design.

Where paving was possible, the new, re-envisioned garden utilized salvaged Asian granite curbs, re-cut and installed as pavers, treads, and wall caps. The reuse of these materials adds to the character and variety of the surfaces and also reduces the material waste associated with construction. The light granite pavers on the lower terrace reflect sunlight into the adjacent study while reducing heat gain in the summer. They are also placed over a deep gravel bed, which retains storm water. The excavation for the new cellar and basement-level addition yielded several massive boulders, native to the site. KHoyt incorporated these boulders into sculptural arrays nestled into both the upper and lower terraces and also coordinated with ERGO to arrange a small collection of them into the poured concrete floor of the study. This feature greatly reduced material and fuel waste, avoided hauling fees for the client, and brought an integral landscape feature into their interior—forming a connecting between two beautiful spaces, year round.

With less planting overall, the design highlights the plants that are included by bringing them into view from the interior living spaces and by selecting unique and contrasting specimens. To achieve this, the clients contributed their own, extensive plant research during the plant selection process—adding unusual, out of the ordinary specimens from their favorite parks and gardens in Japan. KHoyt, working with horticultural contractors / gardeners Michele Paladino and Roger Miller Gardens, developed a very intentional and restrained palette that showcased these specimens while providing needed screening, privacy and enclosure.

Ultimately, this home and its garden represent a harmonious fusion of architecture and landscape architecture—a space that honors tradition while accommodating the rhythms of contemporary, multi-generational family life. It stands as a quiet yet powerful example of how site-sensitive design, cultural authenticity, and ecological stewardship can coexist in the heart of an urban residential setting.

• Other landscape architecture offices involved in the design of the landscape:
KHoyt Architecture/ Landscape, PC

• Architecture offices involved in the design:
ERGO Architects

• Other credits:
Architecture: ERGO Architects
Structural Engineering: LERA
MEP Engineering: ABS Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering: Langan
Lighting Design: Dot Dash
General Contractor: Grant Davis Thompson
Garden Contractor: Roger Miller Gardens; Michele Paladino
Arborists: Urban Arborists
Landscape Photography: Dan Wonderly
Architectural Photography: Max Burkhalter

more by ERGO Architects and KHoyt Architecture/ Landscape

The Canopy Garden by KHoyt Architecture/ Landscape, PC