MASTER DESIGN SOLUTIONS
Prime Positioning
Wiff Harmer Photography
An Outdoor Living Space Brings the
Homeowners' Personality Outdoors
By KJ Fields
I
n Nashville, Tenn., one home enjoyed
a beauty and distinction that abruptly
ended when residents and guests
stepped into the rear yard. There, they
encountered a large L-shaped terrace
and landscape marred by disjointed
elements and scattered plantings. Poor past
remodels skewed the environment, shifting
the existing pool off center from plan and
leaving ill-defined spaces.
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March 2013
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The homeowners had worked separately with Wills Co. of Nashville and Wade
Weissmann Architecture of Brown Deer,
Wis., on their other properties and brought
the two companies together to renovate the
outdoor living space. Wendell Harmer,
co-owner and general manager of Wills
Co., says it proved to be an ideal collaboration. "We function as a design/build firm,
and the architects helped maintain that
The outdoor space is equipped with a
television, service bar, small refrigerator,
dishwasher and fireplace for intimate
dinner parties, football games or simply
as a miniature retreat outside the house.
process. At one point, we accomplished
everything on the owners' wish list; but
when we discovered we were over budget,
there was a lot of back and forth to adhere
to the intent of the project. In the end, we
reined in the budget and actually came out
with better results," Harmer asserts.
According to Eric Slavin, Wade
Weissmann Architecture's lead designer for
the project, the new outdoor space provided