Conroe 3-Level

Shot from above, this yard shows what a stepped waterfront site can be made into: a notched pool and spa on the upper terrace, paver-and-turf strips running across the decks, a curved practice green dropping away below it, and a timber deck carrying the whole thing out to the seawall.

Level changes are the difficult part. Each terrace is built and drained as its own platform, so water is taken off at every step rather than running down onto the level below. The same paver-and-turf detail carries across all three, which is what ties the levels together instead of leaving them reading as three separate projects. The set below is one aerial shoot — plan, bird's-eye and diagonal — because from the ground you can only ever see one level at a time.