E.O. Wattis House

Io Design Collaborative prepared a landscape renovation master plan and construction document set for the 1914 E. O. Wattis House, designed in the Prairie Style by prominent Utah architect Eber F. Piers. Landscape structures and plantings define outdoor rooms. A new walk directs attention to the front entry beneath the porte cochere, minimizing the visual impact of the newer garage addition built on the site of the original rose garden. Woody plants with spreading canopies emphasize the long, low lines of the house, while mixed perennial beds in the spirit of Gertrude Jekyll unify the house and garden.

Edmund Orson Wattis, Jr. (1855-1834) was the founder of the Utah Construction Company, which organized a consortium of six companies that built the Hoover Dam. A 1917 job that gave Wattis the confidence to expand was the $7 million dollar contract for the O’Shaughnessy Dam, the controversial project that impounds the Tuolumne River in California’s Hetch Hetchy Valley. In 2006 the grandchildren of E.O. Wattis joined forces to buy and restore the house and grounds after years of deferred maintenance by the previous owner.