The Landscape Designer Is In: Building a Private Outdoor Shower in Publicity-Loving New York - Gardenista
Photographs courtesy of Billie Cohen, Ltd. Showering on a Manhattan rooftop: It might sound like a fantasy only Alfred Hitchcock could dream up, a case of Psycho-meets-Rear Window. Taking the family’s lead, Cohen of Billie Cohen, Ltd. involved the boys in the project from the beginning, and their input made it a success. “The children use the terrace for ping pong and other games, so the plants need to be portable,” Cohen says. In a grouping of oxblood ceramic vessels, she arranged foxglove and Deutzia, both spring bloomers that are a little on the wild and weedy side for a city garden, but the clients favor their unkempt look. a schematic plan of the deck shows the entry at bottom left; a fenced area to the immediate right where a skylight needed to be kept exposed; and a storage area through the doorway at left, where furniture, out-of-season pots, and the solar immersion heater for the shower water are stored. Along the wall of the building at bottom is a trough holding English ivy, grasses, climbing hydrangea, and wisteria–all hardy and vigorous growers against masonry. Typical of urban rooftops, this one adjoins a neighbor’s plot that had not been landscaped. The shower cascades onto an open ipe wood deck–the goal here being fun, not seclusion. The children chose the palette for the backspash, composed of Veneto glass tiles from Stone Source. The aluminum and wood arbor has become a staple of Cohen’s terrace gardens. Wisteria has become so prolific that Cohen has to visit the site regularly for “trims.” Despite a small plant vocabulary, this city rooftop greens up nicely between spring and fall–prime outdoor-showering season.