Terkowitz Residence    McLean, Virginia

The Terkowitz Garden is organized around a thread of water that reveals the underlying nature of a wooded two-acre residential site. At the outset of the effort, a small tributary draining a 17-acre upstream watershed disappeared under the property into an undersized pipe out-letting directly into Pimmit Run. Rather than upsizing the pipe, the stream was daylighted, transforming the spirit of the place. The newly daylighted stream weaves through a series of step pools and stone runnels converting a gravel turnaround into a creek side fern glen of native and naturalized perennials and bulbs. The owners now enjoy the sight and sound of the natural drainage of the tributary, and the woodlands and downstream watershed benefit from an ecological approach to the revealed hydrology of the site.