The Allée is a study in restraint and rhythm, designed in collaboration with John Pawson’s studio for a new-construction residence in Santa Monica. On a compact city lot, the landscape unfolds with quiet precision—each element calibrated to enhance the architecture’s clarity and the client’s creative life.

The streetside garden evokes a coastal meadow, with native grasses and California perennials planted in loose drifts. Decomposed granite paths thread between them, offering a porous transition from public to private. Inside the gated garden, a linear grove of plane trees accentuates the long side yard, drawing the eye toward a hidden staircase beneath the guest house.

At the base of that stair lies a music recording studio, where the homeowner—an acclaimed film soundtrack composer—crafts his work in quiet seclusion. The landscape supports this rhythm of arrival and retreat, balancing openness with enclosure, softness with structure.
Two worlds—cinematic and architectural—meet here in a garden of subtle choreography.