2009 VA ASLA Awards

General Design Professional - The Homestead at Nick's Station

Merit Award 

Project: The Homestead at Nick's Station

Landscape Architect: Nelson Byrd Woltz
Architect: James Blackburn & Robin Butt
Client: Jagra Holdings
General Contractor: Roger Evans
Other Contractors: Jeff Biles - Landscape; Nigel Hope - Horticulture

Nick's Head Station is a 3,000 acre sheep farm that forms the southern edge of Poverty Bay on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. The landscape architect was charged with the design of a series of gardens and spaces around the farmhouse for relaxation, play, and exploration. The gardens are designed as extensions of the living spaces within the house and are inspired by the many ways that humans have engaged the New Zealand landscape with both devastating and beautiful consequences.

The plant palette of the English Perennial Garden is inspired by letters from early settlers describing plants brought from England or native New Zealand plants that they had incorporated into their homestead grounds.

These gardens are extremely rich in narrative, using plants and earthworks to tell important stories about New Zealand ecology and culture. The gardens look back through the island's environmental history, distilling the primary forces at work, and recomposing them in a contemporary way. The gardens are not bound by history. They also look toward a new era of the environment, one that regenerates the forest ecology in concert with responsible agricultural practices while respecting the sacred Maori landscape.

Jury comments included:
- Excellent landscape and hardscape design details,
- Earthworks are amazing,
- Design is as beautiful as its setting.