Villa Alberi occupies a large, irregular shaped piece of land just south of the middle of Palm Beach. The lot was vacant for many years, and so, hoping to make it more attractive to prospect buyers by giving it more character, the owner planted several rows of citrus trees. The trees were visible from the road, and, although a folly, they ked to the property becoming known to many local residents as “The Orange Grove.” In the early days of our work on the site, people who heard we were working on the gardens for a new house worried more about what was happening to the citrus trees than anything else. SMI’s involvement with the garden started when the architect Dan Kahan invited us to collaborate on the project with his client. Our first task was to work with Dan to decide the proper placement of the house on the site. He explained the layout of the house and also expressed the ideas he has relayed to placing it so that the main view over the water would be between the two islands in the middle of the waterway. We thought this was an excellent idea, and after some study, we recommended pushing the house far to one end of the property in order to accentuate the long piece of land for Palm Beach. The concept for the rest of the property revolved around giving the appearance that the house was built in the early days of Palm Beach and the gardens carved out of nature over time.