Tag: Award winning project

Ultimate Backyard Lancaster: A ‘Once-in-a-Career’ Hardscaping Project

Jeremy Martin, owner of Willow Gates Home & Landscape, first received a call from his client about the “Ultimate Backyard Lancaster” project in summer of 2023. Martin was on vacation at the time, but he was so intrigued by his client’s description of their dream project that he felt compelled to respond immediately.

“It was the kind of project that comes along maybe every 10 years, maybe once in a career,” Martin said.

Ultimate Backyard Lancaster would eventually go on to win the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Permeable category and earn an Honorable Mention in Outdoor Living Features category at the 2025 Hardscape North America Awards.

But the Ultimate Backyard Lancaster isn’t just an award-winning project. It’s proof that even the most ambitious visions can become reality when every detail is treated with care.

Building a Dream

Martin’s client had been planning this project since 2015, when he first built his home. By the time he reached out to Martin, the architectural drawings for the entertainment barn the project included were mostly complete, but the real work was just beginning.

Martin thinks and designs in 2-D. For this project, he started with the two largest features: the barn footprint and the pool dimensions. From there, he built outward, carefully considering how each element would flow together.

In addition to the barn and pool, the client also initially requested a full half-court basketball court. Once Martin showed him what that would require, they scaled back to free throw lines and other basketball court elements so the final look would still be impressive, but not overwhelming.

Finding the Right Materials

“One of the guiding principles was this had to look like it’s built at the same time as the home, despite being 10 years later,” Martin said.

That guiding principle would shape every design decision for Martin.

The property also already featured outdoor living space built in 2017, complete with a bocce court and outdoor kitchen. Rather than forcing a perfect match with the older materials, Martin took a thoughtful approach.

All retaining walls and the barn used a natural stone veneer that matched the outdoor kitchen and closely coordinated with the house. This created cohesion instead of contrast.

“I really hated the idea of adding in yet another color, another texture,” Martin said. “I didn’t want it to be a complete fruit salad of everything thrown in there.”

For the pool patio, the client fell in love with the texture of Techo-Bloc’s Everest paver and wanted it in a diamond pattern using three colors: very dark gray, light gray, and medium tan.

When the client initially requested mixing all three colors in three different sizes throughout the large patio in addition to the pool, Martin pushed back.

“I said, ‘That’s just way too busy. We need to dial it back,’” Martin said.

Instead, Martin used the same color palette in much more muted tones—very light gray, very light cream, and very light tan—for the main patio. The result was visual interest without overwhelming the massive space.

“I love it. I think that really brought it all together. Those colors came together perfectly,” Martin said.

Sweating the Details

The curves in this project stand out as the most challenging and rewarding elements for Martin.

Martin wanted the semicircle at the shallow end of the pool, a curved walkway, and a circular fire pit seating area to flow together perfectly. He spent hours during the design phase ensuring these curves aligned, then duplicated that precision in the field.

“Those are the little details that I really sweated,” he said. “They were really important to me, and you’re like, ‘is it really worth it?’ You look at a picture at the end, and, yes, it was worth it. Those curves all are pretty much perfect.”

The same attention to detail extended to the diamond pattern around the pool. Martin designed the borders and everything to work with full and half diamonds—no slivers anywhere. All four sides were laid out meticulously to avoid any partial cuts.

The Permeable Challenge

Adding nearly a quarter acre of impervious surface in Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay watershed meant serious stormwater management requirements. The project needed a 100-year stormwater plan capable of storing 7.5 inches of rainfall.

The solution required making the entire patio and all artificial turf areas permeable with a 20-inch base.

“It’s kind of crazy. We didn’t need that much base, it’s simply a patio, but we had to store 7.5 inches, and that’s what it came out to be,” Martin said.

The team also constructed a massive infiltration bed measuring 30 feet wide by 90 feet long and 30 inches deep for the barn, driveway, and other improvements.

“Permeable truly does make sense. It’s good stewardship. It’s good management, and given you’re building a patio anyway, we’re already putting a base in. To make it deeper and put stormwater management underneath it just makes sense in a lot of cases,” Martin said.

A Year in the Making

From initial contact with the client to getting permits in hand took a full year. Stormwater planning alone consumed over half that time.

Installation continued right up until winter arrived, with the team working as snow was flying and temperatures dropped into the teens.

But the most rewarding moment came during installation. Martin arrived one Saturday to find his client playing basketball with his granddaughter on the not-quite-finished court.

“This really kind of encapsulated why he wanted to build this. It’s for his family and his friends. It’s not a public space, he’s not renting it out, this is just a place for him to hang out with his friends and family,” Martin said.

“It’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re building something this over the top, but at the end of the day, that’s what it’s for. He’s hosting people there constantly, family, friends, board meetings. He built this place to be used. It’s not just something to show off with. This is a place he wanted to use, and he is. He’s using it all the time.”

Details Over Scale

The scale of this project is staggering. More than 4,500 square feet of pavers isn’t something you see often.

“Everyone who’s seen this project is kind of mind-boggled by the sheer scope,” Martin said. “I do view it as very much a privilege and an honor to be able to build this for the client.”

Winning in two categories at the 2025 HNA awards validated all the hard work Martin and his team put into the project. For aspiring hardscapers who want to one day work on their own award-winning projects, Martin encourages them to focus on the details, not just the scale.

“Details matter,” Martin said. “Just the sheer scope of a project or sheer scale isn’t really the most important thing. So yes, this is an amazing project, a once-in-a-lifetime project that I never even would have dreamed of. But it’s really the little details that matter, whether it’s a big project or a small project.”

He points to the clean diamond pattern around the pool, the perfectly flowing curves, the muted and coordinating color palettes. These are the elements that elevate good work to exceptional work.

“If you lay a 5,000-square-foot patio and there’s no character to it, the joint lines aren’t straight—you missed the point, you know?” Martin said. “I don’t want to do that kind of work. To me, it’s not the sheer size. I care about the details.”

His client’s decade-long dream is now a showcase of what’s possible when scale meets meticulous hardscaping craftsmanship.

How Smart Hardscaping Solutions Solved Big Challenges at America’s Most Famous Battlefield

When visitors arrive at Little Round Top in Gettysburg National Military Park, they’re stepping onto hallowed ground.

But with over a million visitors each year, the site – one of the most pivotal sites of the Civil War – needed infrastructure upgrades that could handle massive foot traffic while respecting the history beneath their feet.

For aspiring hardscapers, this innovative retaining wall project that won top honors at the 2025 Hardscape North America awards offers lessons in innovative problem-solving, adaptability, and delivering results under unique constraints.

Creatively Preserving a Historical Site

The parking area at Little Round Top’s summit needed a retaining wall to raise the slope’s grade and improve traffic flow, creating safer gathering areas and better accessibility for tour buses. But its status as a historical site created additional challenges.

“You want to be very respectful of the history of sites like this, and preserving as much of the natural landscape as possible,” said Dave Belyea, Communications & Global Events Manager at CornerStone Wall Solutions Inc.

The original specifications called for a geogrid-reinforced granite boulder wall, but sourcing materials proved difficult. That’s when contractor Structural Engineering Group (SEG) and ELA Group, the project engineer, approached York Building Products about an alternative solution using MagnumStone blocks.

The blocks were ultimately chosen because one of MagnumStone’s signature features are gravity extender units. These components work similarly to geogrid but require significantly less digging. On a historic battlefield where every shovelful matters, this was crucial.

“With less excavation, MagnumStone’s gravity wall system delivers more solutions for common and complex retaining wall projects,” Belyea said.

The hollow core blocks could also be handled with compact construction equipment. This eliminated the need for large staging areas, which worked particularly well for the constrained spaces atop the storied Battle of Gettysburg hillside.

“Small crews are capable of these projects too,” Belyea said. “You can have crews with as little as 2 to 3 people installing well over a thousand square feet of block per day.”

The National Park Service also had specific visual requirements for the site. The team used MagnumStone’s natural ledge face texture on one side of the parapet wall, then attached granite-colored stone veneer to the parking lot-facing side to achieve the desired ashlar pattern. The blocks were stained to match the region’s natural granite color palette.

“It was a really neat way of integrating different hardscaping products to come out with an end product that achieved the structural requirements, long-term stability, and durability required for a historic site with that much traffic, but also the look they envisioned,” Belyea said.

Award-Winning Results

The completed wall reaches 10 feet at its highest point and covers 3,485 square feet, with a hybrid gravity and parapet design. The top courses were filled with concrete to support safety fencing, with posts installed directly into the blocks’ hollow cores for a clean, elegant finish. It also features built-in lateral and vertical drainage channels for superior drainage.

The end result supports active pressures from the roadway and offers a new sidewalk and gathering areas for loading and unloading tour buses.

“Everyone was thrilled with the construction efficiency and the system’s history of performance,” Belyea said. “It looks natural, clean, elegant and fitting of this historic site. The end product was a retaining wall the National Military Park can be proud of, enhancing the safety and experience of tourists who visit from coast to coast or internationally.”

The Little Round Top project was recognized at the 2025 Hardscape North America Awards, taking home the top prize in the Commercial Retaining Wall category.

“It’s nice to showcase what our products can do. It’s an honor to be recognized with an HNA Award for our products and their capabilities. We have an excellent network of production partners and we want to help share their hard work,” Belyea said.

“Seeing the teamwork that goes into all of these projects is special, from consistent block production to scheduling site material deliveries and the creativeness of the engineers and contractors involved to seek out solutions like our gravity extenders. The gravity extenders fit the needs of the project, and resulted in a successful, long-term solution. It’s rewarding to see the full circle moments that come out of it all.”

Lessons for Aspiring Hardscapers

There are many lessons to be learned from an award-winning project like Little Round Top, especially for aspiring hardscapers.

Stay open to alternatives. When the original specifications proved difficult to source, the team didn’t give up. Instead, they proposed an innovative solution.

Efficiency matters. The gravity wall approach with extender units greatly minimized excavation depths compared to alternative solutions, saving time and money while reducing environmental impact.

Small crews with the right tools and systems can tackle impressive installations. This project was possible because the products it used meant they could use compact equipment.

Think about the full picture. This project succeeded because it addressed multiple needs: structural requirements, time constraints, budget considerations, aesthetic demands, and environmental preservation. Great hardscaping is about building something that works on every level.

With Little Round Top, MagnumStone, York Building Products, Structural Engineering Group, and ELA Group crafted work that will stand the test of time, serve its purpose beautifully, and make everyone involved proud of what they’ve accomplished together.

Transforming Public Spaces: Inside European Pavers Southwest’s Award-Winning Hardscape at Scottsdale Civic Center Plaza

The Scottsdale Civic Center Plaza, a nine-acre public gathering space in downtown Scottsdale, Arizona, has been a community cornerstone for over 50 years. As part of a $27.5 million bond-funded renovation, the plaza underwent a complete overhaul to modernize its infrastructure and aesthetics while enhancing its year-round usability.

European Pavers Southwest played a crucial role in transforming this urban oasis, earning national recognition for their work. Their efforts were celebrated at the 2024 Hardscape North America (HNA) Awards, where they took home the top prize in the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Commercial (less than 15,000 sf) category. The event recognized outstanding hardscape projects from 215 submissions across 19 categories.

European Pavers has built up a reputation for municipal work, especially in Arizona, and she was thrilled when they were selected to take on this Scottsdale project.

“It was a huge project,” Kimberly Miller, President of European Pavers Southwest, said. “It’s our reputation. We’ve been here for so long in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. People know our workmanship. They know that we return our phone calls. They know we show up for punch lists. They know we’re honest,” Miller said.

Reimagining an Iconic Public Space

Scottsdale Civic Center Plaza consists of nine acres of pristine open public space constructed over 50 years ago in the heart of downtown Scottsdale, Arizona. With a bond-funded $27.5 million budget, the Civic Center Plaza Renovation Project included upgraded utilities, regraded and drained landscapes, and newly installed hardscapes. Key additions include two multi-functional stages, restroom facilities, a children’s play area with a mist-fog system, and expansive pedestrian walkways designed with eye-catching pavers.

European Pavers Southwest worked on four distinct areas of the revamped plaza. Their award-winning section spans 4,800 square feet and showcases an intricate series of concentric and patterned circles crafted with various types of stones and permeable pavers.

The project took about four weeks to complete. The visually striking design required technical precision, expert craftsmanship, and honest feedback. These are the qualities that have built the company’s impressive reputation throughout Arizona and the Southwest.

Crafting for Community Impact

Miller finds deep satisfaction in contributing to public works that the entire community can enjoy.

“I love those jobs because they’re so high profile,” she said. “It’s something that somebody’s going to see.”

The plaza’s pavers, supplied by Ackerstone, perfectly complemented the design vision crafted by the City of Scottsdale. This collaborative effort highlights how hardscaping goes beyond construction—it’s an art form that can redefine public spaces.

With a complete overhaul, the site’s new layout is designed so that all nine acres of the plaza can be utilized throughout the year. The existing hardscape was removed, and an extensive grading operation lowered the grade by as much as six feet in some areas. Several hills were moved to enhance the view of the park. New decorative hardscape and pedestrian walkways—a combination of concrete and pavers—made this linear civic space more inviting to users and visitors.

A Surprising Win

With 215 project submissions across 19 categories, the 2024 Hardscape North America (HNA) Awards showcased hardscaping excellence in materials such as concrete pavers, clay bricks, retaining walls, adhered thin veneers, porcelain, natural stone, and vintage installations.

European Pavers Southwest took home the top prize in the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Commercial (less than 15,000 sf) category for its work on the Scottsdale Civic Center Plaza.

Despite their stellar work, the European Pavers team was genuinely surprised when their project was announced as the first-place winner.

Because of the way they saw the boards displayed at HNA, they thought they had gotten fourth place and the photos were just being shown as additional project examples.

“Needless to say, we were all shocked!” European Pavers posted on Facebook with the announcement of their win.

Inspiring the Next Generation of Hardscapers

European Pavers Southwest’s success at the HNA Awards proves that hardscaping is more than laying stones—it’s about shaping environments, telling stories through design, and leaving lasting legacies.

For aspiring hardscapers, projects like Scottsdale Civic Center Plaza show how creativity and craftsmanship can blend into something truly remarkable.

As Miller summed up, “We take pride in what we do. Saying I’m proud of my team is an understatement.”

Inspiring Artistry and Creativity in Hardscaping: Lessons from JPave’s Award-Winning Project

Breaking into the hardscape industry can feel like a big leap, but the recent 2024 Hardscape North America (HNA) Awards was a reminder that great things come from creativity, passion, and a willingness to push boundaries. With a remarkable 215 project submissions across 19 categories submitted in 2024, the competition highlighted the creativity and expertise within the field.

Among the standout projects was one that should especially inspire newcomers to the field: JPave’s “Grown Expectations,” a residential patio that redefines what’s possible in small spaces.

Jason and Jennifer Stewart, owners of JPave in Smithville, MO, took home top honors in the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Residential (less than 3,000 square feet) category. Their award-winning patio design used a combination of brickwork and pavers to create the impression of a vine weaving through the space, connecting a pergola, firepit, water feature, and dining area.

For Jason Stewart, this design was a long time in the making.

“I actually designed a variation of that idea for two prior customers, but nobody ever wanted it until this customer. I think with this particular project, the space that was allowed, the things they already had in place, and what they wanted and requested, it just flows so beautifully,” he explained.

For those new to the industry, Jason’s experience highlights the importance of finding a balance between artistic vision and customer needs. It’s all about understanding your clients’ preferences and finding creative ways to bring those ideas to life. This project, for instance, stayed true to the home’s overall aesthetic.

“It was a traditional design. The home is a traditional home. The front is all red brick, so it definitely matched the style of the home,” Jason shared. “I did present two other ideas that were more modern and contemporary designs to the same customer, and this is what they chose.”

For anyone starting out, one of the most inspiring aspects of “Grown Expectations” is the way it combines so many skills, including hardscaping, carpentry, boulder coring, lighting, wall building, staining, and even some coppersmithing. Jason’s advice? Don’t shy away from challenges.

“Since I was the installer and the designer, I knew my capabilities,” he noted. “Don’t be afraid to design and install. We did have to do a lot of stuff here. That wasn’t all interlocking pavement. There were water features, electrical pumps. There’s a curved pergola in it where there’s actually carpentry and woodwork. There are walls in there.”

Jennifer added, “Don’t be afraid to try the hard stuff. He knew it was going to be difficult, and that execution was going to be different and one of a kind, and he was not afraid of it. He went in full force and just knocked it out of the park.”

The Stewarts hope this recognition will open doors for new design opportunities and inspire others in the hardscaping community to explore their creativity.

“I’m hoping to gain more design work off of it,” Jason said. “We definitely wanted to show what you can do with a small space and it doesn’t look crowded at the same time… You could scoot the table and chairs out of the way, and it could be a dance floor for sure.”

Whether you’re just starting in the hardscaping field or looking to push your designs further, remember that every project is an opportunity to learn, innovate, and inspire. JPave’s “Grown Expectations” is proof that with a clear vision and a fearless approach, you can create spaces that not only stand out but also resonate with your clients and bring their dreams to life.

GET STARTED WITH A CAREER IN HARDSCAPING TODAY!

EXPLORE SOME OF THE CAREER PATHS