RICHMOND DUNES
Construction Completed Summer 2020
A dune landscape in the Inner Richmond neighborhood.
Much of the peninsula of San Francisco (fourteen square miles) was covered in high undulating sand dunes and dune scrub prior to development. Dune scrub is very similar to coastal scrub, dominated by low, spreading shrubs such as coyote brush and sticky monkey flower.
Given the confines of the fenced in, rectangular backyard, topography was employed to lift the beds out into sculptural masses, one turned in on the other, to mimic the deposition and accretion of dunes as we know them to move in the wild. The planting is inspired by dune scrub — hardy and gnarled (magnolia, manzanita) pioneer species (maple, dune grass) and flowering (salvia, gaura, yarrow).
