Peter Marino is, of course, “the design world’s sartorially distinguished rebel,” but actually, dressing like a leather-clad biker is the least interesting thing about him. An internationally acclaimed architect, he is also a noted art collector and interested in landscapes. All three interests come together in his extraordinary Southampton garden on Ox Pasture Road. A new book, The Garden of Peter Marino, published by Rizzoli, gorgeously illustrates Marino’s architectural landscape at his own home.
Peter Marino, from the introduction: “A friend came to visit me in early June when the garden is at its most beautiful and announced, ‘This could only be the garden of an architect—and an American one at that.’ When I asked what she meant, she explained that it was because I’d created a series of different outdoor ‘rooms,’ all squares or rectangles, with everything organized on a single axis that goes from the cow sculpture, on one side of the house, all the way to the bull sculpture, on the other side. And she was right! These are the sorts of things architects obsess over.”
But it’s not all straight lines and modern sculpture. “Fantasy has been a powerful element in my design for the garden. I have this ‘Alice in Wonderland’ idea in my head that a garden should be a place of wonderment,” says Marino. “The French use gardens to show grandeur and the English to show how things have endured for hundreds of years, but for me they’re all about fantasy.”
