WOOD GATES #96

This Garden Gates is Base Price + 8%
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Point Mendocino, CA

The original double wood gates #96 on a perfectly lovely landscape and residence, overlooking the coastline at Point Mendocino in Northern California. Our purpose here is not to provide an accoutrement that upstages the surrounding landscape and residence, but, moreover, a design whose subtle beauty is inherent to the setting.

Point Mendocino, CA

The schematic of a tightly created landscape of native grasses and plants, pitched against the open expanse of the Pacific. Linking one to the other are the centerpiece double wood gates #96.

Point Mendocino, CA

Odd, in that the site is relatively close to the Prowell shop (2-½ hrs north), and one of the more unique and intriguing gardens within the entire corpus of the landscapes Prowell has been involved with. And yet, given the infrequency of the drive north, it might as well be Maine.

Studying the garden and we begin to understand just how important the arched wooden gate #96 is to the overall aesthetic of this particular garden landscape.

Point Mendocino, CA

Here we see the service entry with the arched wood gates accessing the kitchen.

Point Mendocino, CA

Asingle arched wood gates on the south side of the property, flanked by the same continuous hedge.

And for those wondering why this blissful corner of the universe is not more populated than it is: Note the sky–a pale sky dulled by the interminable fog. And wind. And mist. And cold. Not the cold of, say, the Maine coast in January . . . but if you’re considering leaving the incessant summer fog of San Francisco, you’ll likely be met in Mendocino with a weekend indoors, sitting beside a warm fireplace, in August.

Let’s take a Sunday drive in mid-summer. We’ll leave the Prowell shop, heading west and within 5 minutes we’re passing through heavenly rolling meadows banked by groves of ancient redwoods. As we approach the protection of the low coastal hills, the sun has been replaced with a sudden otherworldly fog that squeezes through the low passes as we roll up the windows and turn on the wipers to clear the mist. We pass a dairy farm or two, peopled by the ancestors of the original Italian dairy farmers of the mid 1800’s who remain the sovereign caretakers of this heaven on earth. The hills turn greener and dairy cows spot the countryside as we bank into the last turn and merge along the coastline with the visibility reduced to the yellow line dividing the road between the crumbling sandstone on the right and the seemingly endless nothingness of a hidden Pacific on the left. The known world disappears down that invisible 400-foot embankment to an empty beach littered with driftwood and whale bones as we turn on the heater and negotiate a wind that threatens our course between the yellow lines in a state of floating existence, crawling along, insulated from anything and everything linked to the reality we departed only 20-30 minutes earlier. The world behind us drains onto the headrests, replaced by the empty space of thoughtless thoughts in this world so wisely protected long ago by insightful California Coastal Commission and its Open Space zoning restrictions. A backdoor Sunday drive just around the corner, while simultaneously light years away.

Point Mendocino, CA

The sublime lower commons, with wine cellar doors in the distance.

Point Mendocino, CA

And finally, the house itself. Note the putting green.

Why is it, after all these years, that a simple comment from an admiring customer can still have its affect. Upon completion of this project, the general contractor forwarded over a note sent to him by the homeowner with whom we had not met nor had contact with during the course of the commission:
“Incredible . . . wouldn’t it be wonderful if the professional world was populated with prowells .”

Great Falls, VA
Featuring 5 grid columns per row.

Gate #96-6 set to jambs that are mounted to the block column core, with the stone cladding cut to fit the embedded jambs.
Obviously, it’s easier to set the embedded jambs to the block core prior to setting the stone.

Seattle, Washington
Six columns of grids and picket spacing 3/4″.

A  Seattle residence showing the scalloped wooden gate #96-3 with the lower pickets at a closer 3/4″ spacing instead of the standard 1-1/2″. Note the subtle alignment of the fence panel horizontal grid divider to the gate’s horizontal grid divider. Also shown with Fence Panel style #19.

Seattle, Washington

Another entry into the same courtyard, showing the #96, as double wood gates flanked by modified Fence style #2, with the pickets on both the gates and panels set at the more narrow 3/4″ spacing. An ideal way to maintain a modicum of privacy while not resorting to the aesthetics of a solid barrier fence. At 3/4″ spacing, the viewer, at 6′ distance, must stand within five degrees of dead center to see through the spacing. At greater distances, the visibility closes even more so.

Stamford, Connecticut
Featuring 5 grid columns per row.

The arched wood gates #96-2 as double gates at only 36″ height. Showing a grid pattern of five across instead of three. The added grids horizontally gives us smaller grid sizes, which in turn translates into a higher middle gate rail. A necessity here, on such a short gate, lest the grids dominate the proportions.

No shortage of windows, overlooking Long Island Sound.

Stamford, Connecticut

Our double wood gates #96-2 are flanked by a low meandering dry-stack wall, distinguishing the site from the bucolic waterway and the rural environment outside Stamford, CT

Atlanta, Georgia
Five columns of grids

Wood gates #96-5 as double gates in Georgia—within the environment of locally quarried stone.

Something’s wrong with the posts. Too tall.

Atlanta, Georgia

A landscape almost dominated by stone walls that is quieted, or perhaps endeared, by the introduction of the workmanship and subtle design offered by these small double wood gates. In a year or so, when the planting schedule matures, the entire landscape will appear more inviting.

Shown with the Rocky Mountain Hardware Gate Latch #414

Atlanta, Georgia

The residence, with the terraced stone wall garden in the rear. A recognizable hint of Atlanta’s late 20th century with the revisited antebellum architecture.

Seattle, Washington
Three columns of grids

Arched double wood gates #96-4, overlooking the bleak landscape of a Seattle winter.

Seattle, Washington

Looking from the other direction, with the scalloped arch of the double wood gates #96-4 flanked by a plain plank fence that purposefully accentuates the gates themselves.