Growing up on working farm in New Hampshire instilled a strong passion for the outdoors in Abby Clough Lawless. Her understanding and respect for the natural grace and rhythms of farm life informs the philosophy and approach to all her landscapes. FARM designs integrate human structures with native ecologies, topography and the seasons to create seamless living landscapes that adapt and change.
Approach
FARM landscapes allow buildings and structures—be they modern or traditional—to settle and resonate and grow within the indigenous environment so that they become a backdrop where people feel comfortable over time and lives can thrive. Abby strictly adheres to function and clear spatial arrangements by building and enhancing essential outdoor rooms: parking, dining, social gathering spaces, vistas, open areas, groves and gardens. She then layers the space with aesthetic elements that evoke charm, beauty and playfulness. All key elements of the garden, from trees to stone, are hand selected to ensure the quality of the completed project. Abby works closely with the client from design through the installation completion to achieve the perfect vision.
Background
Harvesting vegetables as a child provided Abby with an innate appreciation of the function and beauty of plant life, but it was her immersion into art history at Middlebury College, VT that fueled her interest in human relationships with nature and spatial compositions and also gave her a rich historical context for the visual world. After college she studied plant varieties as a garden intern at the New York Botanical Gardens, before hiring on with Long Island landscape designer Edwina von Gal. She received her masters in Landscape Architecture at Cornell University in 2003, gaining the technical skills needed to translate her visions into built landscapes, before returning to work for von Gal as a project manager where she worked on projects like the Frank Gehry botanical gardens in Panama and the residences of Richard Serra, Leonard Riggio, and Calvin Klein. With von Gal's encouragement, Abby opened FARM in 2005.
Summary
Whether designing a rooftop in NYC or a renovating a meadow in Orient, NY Abby brings a refined aesthetic and practical knowledge toward each project. FARM creates spaces that are lyrical and timeless; they reflect her love of the outdoors and appreciation of simplicity and are an expression of her lifelong desire to awaken the natural aesthetic sense within us.
