The Beach Cottage — Pacific Coast Highway, Ventura, CA
Where Surf Meets Sanctuary
Along the Pacific Coast Highway, this beach cottage garden transforms the coastline into a living series of vignettes. Sculptural Japanese black pine, Chinese juniper, layered ferns, and windswept textures create intimate, transportive moments. Every plant, boulder, and courtyard is carefully orchestrated to frame sweeping ocean views, invite discovery, and blur the line between home and landscape.
The surf cottage is a story of family, leisure, surfing, and a little healthy mischief—and we’re honored that our landscape is part of it. Led by architect and homeowner Chet Callahan of Chet Architecture, alongside his husband Jacinto Hernandez and their sons, with interiors by Oliver Furth, the home celebrates queer and BIPOC art and the spirit of California coastal living.
For our team, the landscape was an opportunity to push ourselves to new levels. Inspired by the north-central California coastline—the quiet drama of Monterey cypress silhouettes along this stretch of Ventura’s Highway 1—we crafted a planting palette that feels rooted, intimate, and transportive.
Given the intimate scale of the project, every gesture had to work harder. We approached the garden as a series of living vignettes—bonsai-like moments anchored by sculptural Japanese black pine and Chinese juniper, with carefully curated forms as expressive and distinctive as the home’s art pieces—almost like new members of the family.
Layered fern groves and windswept textures soften the edges, while sheltered courtyards create moments to tuck in and soak up sweeping ocean views from quiet, protected nooks. Boulders dot the decks, introducing a grounding natural element that doubles as informal seating and playful perches—blurring the line between landscape and living space.
We got creative with planters—expanding the landscape vertically and fluidly, both inside and out. Sculptural specimens in vessels extend garden moments onto decks, into courtyards, and into interior sightlines, increasing the sense of immersion and greenery despite the site’s compact footprint.
We’re thrilled to see our beachside project featured in the March issue of Architectural Digest.
Special thanks to Martin Cisneros of Cisneros Hardscapes for diving in with us to bring this project to life on a tight timeline.
Deep gratitude to this fearless, collaborative team—and to clients who encouraged boldness at every turn.
Status
Completed 2025
Credits
Consultants
Chet Architecture, Interior Designer Oliver M. Furth. Installation Cisneros Harsdcapes and Burman Construction.
Photography
Yoshi Makino for A+D