Lynn Scott-Smith, Landscape Design

Born: San Francisco, CA
Bachelor of Science, Human Development, University of California at Davis
Professional Vocalist: 15 years
AMBIANCE LANDSCAPE DESIGN specializes in atmospheric transformation of exterior spaces, creating enchanting garden rooms of fabulous visual appeal and panache.

Some of my earliest memories are of the garden of my childhood. I remember the fragrance of Narcissus as I rolled in the tall grass under the crabapple tree, and Dad putting a hose down the gopher hole to rescue Mom’s Daphne from certain doom. My penchant for creating spaces with an eclectic mix of unusual objects surely came from my mother, who began haunting “junk shops” when antiques were still considered junk, and whose home has always been filled with eye-candy of the highest order, passionately sought after, and artfully arranged. My first exposure to architecture came when my brother Scott, UC Berkeley graduate in Architecture and 9 years my senior, designed a home for my family in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains – a post and beam gem which later garnered the Architectural Beautification Award in Los Altos Hills for its harmony with its natural environment. We called it the “Tree House”, because the home sat high in the embrace of magnificently noble Oaks, whose limbs seemed almost to reach into the largely glass structure. Living in these trees, where the boundary between interior living and the natural world feathered like a watercolor, not only shaped my design sensibilities, but made it difficult even to live in a space that was not in intimate exchange with nature – trees in particular. Sometimes that meant creating a garden in a small space, on a balcony, on a doorstep, or perhaps just outside a window. Sometimes it meant bringing the garden inside, when no such space was available. This, I suppose, was the beginning.

In 1993 I made a transition from a 15-year career in the music industry as a vocalist, to the Real Estate profession. During the ensuing years, I worked with buyers and sellers primarily in Mt. Washington, an eclectic, rural hillside community in Los Angeles. I found real estate to be somewhat dry after a career in the arts, and couldn’t seem to keep my hands off any design opportunity that presented itself – friends’ gardens, clients’ decks and patios – anyone’s outdoor space was fair game. I became interested in expanding the concept of “living area” to include the garden. More specifically, I came to consider ways in which the market value of homes could be significantly increased by creating rich visual appeal in neglected outdoor spaces, with a particular eye toward creating intimate outdoor rooms, destinations that invite the traveler into an experience of the natural world. As a real estate agent, I focused on adding to my clients’ homes what I call “psychological square footage” – the visual expansion of even the smallest of rooms by transcending the boundary between home and garden. I brought in large container trees and pots brimming with blooming flowers, chairs, tables, and an occasional art object, anything to transform their lifeless slab of concrete into an intimate garden setting.

As powerful as the effect was, I found that maximizing it sometimes necessitated architectural changes to the home itself. I recently completed the renovation of a San Diego home, for example, that consisted most notably of the addition of glass doors, opening the living and dining areas to newly conceived garden spaces. The owners were pleased to receive an offer of $150,000 more than the original appraised value of the property, even before installation of the landscaping was complete. I have also enjoyed working with contractors to ready spec homes for the market, and have continued to work with the buyers of those homes to personalize their landscape.

Real Estate Staging entered the spotlight in Southern California when the Los Angeles Times featured the concept in at least one full-page article I know of. It was entitled “Dressed to Sell”, although for me, it has always been “Landscaped to Sell.” Soon, however, I began receiving calls for large landscape design projects that included extensive hardscaping, and was honored to collaborate with Through the Woods Design on the design and staging of the gardens at the Hollywood Showcase House of Design, the historic Toberman Estate. Emphasis on garden staging soon gave way to full landscape design. The name of my firm is AMBIANCE LANDSCAPE DESIGN and my real estate staging company is “INSTANT AMBIANCE”. My work has been featured on HGTV, Home and Garden Television, on Landscapers Challenge as well as at the 2002 Pasadena House of Design.

With each new project, I participate more deeply in the design process, as well as in the creation of an ecosystem which, as custodians of our gardens, we are all an integral part. I have had the great fortune to count among my advisors James Delong, Architect/Sage, and protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, and Jan Van Denbulck, Landscape Architect in Savanna, GA., both of whom continue to be gracious mentors. However, experience “doing” is as always the requisite ingredient. As Thomas Church admonished, “Your can’t sit in your ivory tower and design – get out there on the site and feel the transformation.”

Lynn Scott-Smith lives in Mt. Washington, stomping grounds of the late, beloved columnist Jack Smith. She and her husband, Richard Smith, recording artist and Professor of Music at the University of Southern California are currently building a getaway home in the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle. Lynn continues to use their two Mt.Washington gardens as labs for her work.