A Georgian house usually calls for formal landscaping, with symmetry the order of the day. So when the owners of this Georgian-style residence in Evanston specified "no corners, no straight lines" in their landscaping project, it was just the sort of intriguing challenge that elicits the most creative response from a good design team.

The approach to the house is one example. Insteadof installing a traditional straight sidewalk that divides the lawn in half, Van Zelst, Inc. designed a gently curving walkway of red unit pavers that were configured into a pleasing circular pattern where they terminate at the front steps. Curved planting beds that blend boxwood-hedge tidiness with the summer exuberance of daylilies and coneflowers extend both left and right from the entry. While similar, the beds are not identical.

Much of the flower planting is concentrated in the sunken garden that was built along the east edge of the property, near the hedge that provides a windbreak from Lake Michigan breezes. Thanks toa very gentle nearby berm, the garden can scarcely be seen from the house next door. The sunken garden is also the display site for one of the owners' two sculptures.

Although the landscape was constructed with no straight lines and no corners, there is still an overriding sense of order throughout. Call it "balanced asymmetry."