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For most of the past four years, landscape architect/contractor/watershaper Mark Holden has devoted much of his professional energy to the creation of magnificent settings for Cima del Mundo, a grand estate high in the hills of Montecito, Calif. In two previous articles, he wrote about the nuts and bolts of the multi-phase project. Here, he steps back and offers a pictorial celebration to mark its completion.

A Classic Crescendo

'Project of a lifetime" may not be enough to describe our work at Cima del Mundo. If you'll recall, the hilltop home had experienced many changes since its original construction in 1925, including service as a makeshift monastery as well as a stretch of years in which the property was abandoned and

Even for a firm that specializes in massive natural-stone watershapes, this Pennsylvania project was one for the record books. Working for an enthusiastic client who demanded beauty and visual drama on a truly enormous scale, the staff at Glacier Inc. stepped well beyond the usual in renovating a 78-acre private lake while creating a long, cascading stone stream and waterfall – with a grotto thrown in for good measure.

Up on Rocky Top

When you work on projects in which stone is commonly measured in the thousands of tons and streams are frequently described in fractions of miles, you're not easily impressed by size. This job, however, was remarkably vast - a project driven by creative passion and a client's desire to turn a singular vision into reality. It's the kind of opportunity that doesn't come along every day, and when it did, we knew we'd have to give it everything we had. Our company, Glacier Inc. of Glenshaw, Pa., is a design and construction firm specializing in large natural and naturalistic bodies of water, and most of our work includes