Cape Cod Coastal Retreat: Wianno Beach Estate Transformed with Stunning Shingle-Style Home and Waterfront Landscaping

by Nancy A. Ruhling

Some two decades ago, when Peter Stephens was just starting out his landscaping career in the village of Osterville, Massachusetts, he came across a property in the Wianno Beach neighborhood that intrigued him.

He couldn’t help wondering about the estate, principally because he couldn’t see over the 10-foot-high stucco walls that surrounded it.

What he saw when Dan Gordon Landscape Architects, where he is a principal, won a commission to renovate and modernize the property didn’t disappoint.

Sited at the end of the peninsula where it could greet the boats as they floated by, the estate, he says, “is magnificent and rare on the Cape because it’s totally hidden from the street and neighbors and has 270-degree water views plus two private docks.”

He and the DGLA team designed a landscape that incorporates spaces for active enjoyment of the surroundings and capitalizes on those views.

“Preserving the views while still providing maximum privacy was hard to do,” Stephens says, adding that the owners wanted the landscape to have a casual look and feel.

The stucco and red-tile-roofed Mediterranean-style house was refashioned as a Cape Cod shingle-style residence, and the grounds were recreated as thoughtfully designed spaces that respond to the unique environmental elements, wind and surf, while exploiting the scenery and privacy of the large lot.

*With two docks, the property is well suited to hosting friendly neighborhood boaters who stop in for a cocktail.*

*Steppingstones casually connect the various spaces.*

*Surrounded on three sides by the waters of West Bay, this property is uniquely positioned to take advantage of coastal living.*

The first order of business was to improve the arrival sequence by designing a cobblestone-lined pea stone drive and rerouting it so that guests are directed to the front door instead of to the guest cottage.

Because the owners use this, their vacation home, throughout the year, the front of the house features a green and white palette of ferns, rhododendrons, boxwood, and Annabelle hydrangeas that provides all-season interest.

“The area around the entry is shady,” Stephens says, “because we worked around the existing large trees.”

The front also is home to a vegetable garden and a potting shed that’s in the style of the main house.

The back of the house, which faces the water, is sunny and filled with colorful, aromatic perennials, including catmint and lavender, that bloom in the summer when that space is most used.

The palette—pinks, purples, blues, greens, and whites—is created with a variety of plants, including daisies, agastache, and grasses.

Outfitted with a pergola, a firepit terrace, an outdoor kitchen, and a swimming pool that was added as part of the renovation, the space is the entertainment hub of the estate.

A pool garden that’s slightly elevated from the lawn connects the family’s main living space to the landscape without interfering with the views.

“We designed the pool garden around the views and added a retaining wall with a short fence on top so you can still see the water,” Stephens says.

*Fieldstone walls, with Western red cedar picket fencing, embrace the traditional coastal vernacular of the home and region.*

*The beach bar, with its pergola and firepit, is the perfect space to end a day sharing a cocktail with friends.*

To improve access to the property’s private beach, the DGLA team added steps and redid the dock and boardwalk.

The biggest challenge of the project was finding a way to block the strong winds that are characteristic of the community without compromising the views.

The L shape of the house is a key component of the mitigation, acting as a buffer.

At the pool, strategically placed glass screens punctuate portions of the traditional-style Western red cedar picket fence, creating transparency and safety.

A vegetated dune, restored by the team, separates the maintained landscape from the seawall and ocean. It’s planted with grasses that sway in the breeze.

The docks, surrounded by native beach grasses and roses, encourage the owners’ friends to tie up their boats and stop by for cocktails.

For Stephens, it was quite fulfilling to finally peek over the wall and to create usable outdoor spaces that the owners can share with their children and grandchildren for years to come.

“Working on the property, after seeing it all those years ago, was rewarding,” he says.