Interpreting MCM, outdoors

ADOPTING A MID-CENTURY HOUSE, A GARDENER IS INSPIRED BY THE EXPANSIVE VIEWS FROM INSIDE TO CREATE AN INTERPRETIVE LANDSCAPE—THINKING OUTSIDE THE (GLASS) BOX.

- BY TOVAH MARTIN

OUTSIDE MODERN

A minimalist architectural aesthetic belies the richness of experience afforded by expanses of glass that invite immersion in the landscape. This garden was designed as views and vignettes to be framed by the house.

In earlier years, Craig Wakefield was a dentist with a passion for gardening.

His first house was a Victorian, but affection for that architectural era cooled the moment he walked into his first Mid-century Modern house and marveled at the generous windows. Wakefield saw how a house could frame its surrounding landscape. From then on, he bought MCM houses. You could say he came to Modern architecture from the outside. When Craig Wakefield makes the leap, it’s a deep dive. Not only did he move into his first mid-century home, in 1995, but he also switched to selling real estate, specializing after 2008 in MCM houses. In 2015, he found his current house, in suburban Philadelphia, a ca. 1951 Arthur B. White design. Wakefield categorizes it as International Style, referring to the European-influenced, early-20th-century movement toward strong lines and a minimalist aesthetic. Wakefield immediately dove into a faithful interior restoration, researching the original Knoll furniture and placing the pieces precisely where they sat in 1950s photographs. Landscape design was a different story.

RIGHT Owner Craig Wakefield with Sophie the Springer Spaniel, in his restored living room.

OPPOSITE The 1951 house, viewed from the hillside, shows that close plantings echo panel colors: primary red salvia and beebalm, blue ageratum, yellow black-eyed Susans.