30 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
A planting plan for 
a Buffalo lot with 
the Sinclair house 
planned on it to get 
the best garden 
and planting effects 
terrace which has been added along the 
main part of the house—and all the 
knotty points of the problem are solved 
at once. 
Finding the Garden Axis 
Rarely will a plan adjust to ground for which it was not 
made as satisfactorily as this, however; and in this instance it 
would not have done so without radical “facing around.” As 
the photographs of the original house show, it was built with 
its end and loggia towards the garden, instead of its side; and 
from this loggia a broad path leads along the longitudinal axis 
furnishing the axis of the garden. This axis we have oblit¬ 
erated completely, thereby altering the character of the design 
although the floor plan is so little changed. For now we have 
a transverse axis uniting driveway and entrance turn around 
the house, and all in turn with the gardens. 
Perpetually I am talking about “axes” when the subject is 
garden design. But indeed it is impossible to get away from 
them! They are 
the invisible links 
which alone will 
unite outdoors with 
indoors, garden 
with house, making 
them one and in¬ 
divisible ; and be a 
design casual or 
formal, it is impos¬ 
sible to overlook 
this one thing and 
have it successful: 
—its rise or source 
must be an axial 
line of the dwelling 
or a feature of the 
dwelling. Other- 
wise dwelling and 
garden will never 
become one har- 
whole. 
The side view of the Sinclair property when developed for the Buffalo lot, showing 
a general view of garden plots and walks 
monious 
Necessary Points 
in Any Plan 
it. It will take a longer driveway, and a less simple one in 
plan; it will cut into lawn space tremendously; and above all, 
the entire house will not enjoy the view equally—which is 
inexcusable, with this type of house. 
Obviously there is but one way for it to stand; that is as 
shown. And the plan of house at its entrance must be altered, 
to meet the requirements. Happily this can be done in an 
instant, with pencil and eraser. If the house had been built 
from its original plan, the entrance would have been to the 
north—assuming, of course, that it took its logical position 
lengthwise of the land and with its principal rooms facing the 
view. The driveway would have had to go in on that side; for 
we must drive to the entrance of the dwelling—or to an 
entrance of the dwelling—these days; and behold! All the 
possibilities of the entire garden scheme are wiped out at one 
stroke. 
At first glance possibly it may seem that the alteration in plan 
is very insignificant—just a shift of coat closet and lavatory 
to the opposite end of the hall, to make room for the entrance 
door at their end. 
But a second look- 
over will show that 
this is not quite 
the thing after all. 
Note the plumbing 
—1 avatory and 
pantry “bunched” 
—hence an inex- 
pensive instal¬ 
lation. This must 
remain so, if we 
are to keep within 
the figure of the 
house as it it has 
been built, and this 
we must do. More¬ 
over, we are going 
to need a door for 
exit there where 
the entrance door 
is now, if we are 
to realize to the full 
all the advantages 
of the situation. 
Happily for progress in this particular case, we are not 
planning for a stiff-necked, this-way-or-nothing kind of home 
builder; so the coat closet may be compressed and shifted to 
the other end of the hall, the entrance door will come in where 
the coat closet was, the old entrance door, shifted a bit perhaps, 
will become the garden-front door giving access to the brick 
Place the house first; that is the first and most important 
step; then adjust the plan, if a plan has been previously 
selected—otherwise develop your plan, using as many ideas 
as may be practical from any number of plans which you like, 
but always working under the guidance which careful exam¬ 
ination of every factor in the surroundings furnishes—and of 
