Bernard Trainor

Bernard Trainor: Ground Studio Landscapes
Bernard Trainor
Princeton Architectural Press, May 2019



Hardcover | 12 x 9 inches | 224 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1616897826 | $55.00

Publisher Description:

Bernard Trainor's newest book celebrates the wild and elemental landscapes of California, from the craggy coasts of Big Sur to the fertile hills of Sonoma wine country. His award-winning work combines an awareness of regional context with materials, collaboration, and deep connection to the land. Beautifully photographed and documented with full color plans, the projects in this survey of his recent work include a range of scale, from compact urban gardens to expansive rural sites. Trainor's regional, sustainable approach inspires wonder and respect for nature as it aims to preserve and restore it.

dDAB Commentary:

Not long before this week's publication of this monograph, Bernard Trainor + Associates changed its name to Ground Studio, "honoring the collaboration inherent in [their] team of artists and designers working together to envision and craft contextual California landscapes." Based on this book and Ground Studio's website, the California landscapes that Trainor has crafted are exclusively residential, many of them accompanying modern houses designed by some familiar names: Feldman Architecture, William McDonough + Partners, Sagan Piechota Architecture (now Piechota Architecture), and Swatt | Miers Architects, to name a few. More than the style of architecture – building or landscape – what comes across in this monograph is the unity of the two. These are residences where house and yard become one, where indoor and outdoor spaces sometimes blur, and where landscapes are anything but leftover spaces.

A few projects stand out from the dozen presented in these pages. Arroyo Sequoia (first three spreads below and the cover photo) has the house in Carmel, designed by Daniel Piechota, bridging an exterior stair that unites the site's low and high levels, and includes some creative details and outdoor rooms. Elsewhere in Carmel, Trainor softens the concrete walls of Feldman Architecture's Butterfly House. Big Rock (fourth spread), also done with Piechota, is a balanced mix of building and landscape, following the site's slope and integrating itself into the Napa setting. There's something to like in every project, and with colored plans, short descriptions, and plenty of photographs, there's plenty for both architects and landscape architects to enjoy. Landscape architects in particular should appreciate the project details at the back of the book, where Trainor generously lists the hardscape and plant materials used on each project.

Spreads:


Author Bio:

Bernard Trainor is an Australian-born designer and founding principal and design director of Ground Studio Landscapes, based in Monterey, California. His projects have been featured in a wide range of books and publications and are the recipients of numerous awards. His previous book is Landprints.

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