terra firma landscape architecture

12/21/2025

08/18/2025

Drawing by artist Bruce Teatrowe of the Chestnut Street arch designed by Terrence Parker and TFLA.

07/07/2025

Tonight at 6:00 is the first public hearing at the Levenson Room in the Portsmouth Public Library on the plans for the renovation of the Vaughan Mall. Terrence Parker will be there with Dan Rochette of Underwood Engineers and David DesFosses and Peter Rice of the Portsmouth DPW. Note the proposed glass wall that separates people for the adjacent parking lot and it catches light.

10/22/2024

The Mortal Cod sculpture is ready for the Thursday ceremony at 4:00 at the pavilion at Bohenko Park.
Day time: The Cod are silver like a fishing lure.
Night Time: The Cod are maritime blue and swimming in their shadows.

07/11/2023

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849 – 1909)

Prolific Writer of Short Stories, Novels, Children’s Books & Poetry

Sarah Orne Jewett was born in South Berwick, Maine where she attended Berwick Academy.

Her first story was published by The Atlantic when she was 19. An abiding love of the natural world, so evident in her writings, was nurtured by her physician father, who is featured in her short story, A Country Doctor (1884).

A noted Realist and Regional writer, Sarah placed her stories on the southern coast of Maine. Her stories presented distinct, often kindly characters, that included natural surroundings. 

The most popular of her many published works include the short story collection A White Heron (1886), The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) and the historic novel, The Tory Lover (1901).

She was a mentor to a host of younger writers, including Willa Cather, and an associate of contemporary writers Celia Thaxter, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and John Greenleaf Whittier. 

Sarah’s writing career ended in 1902 after a debilitating carriage accident. Sarah was the partner of Annie Adams Fields of Boston for more than two decades, who was with her when she died at age 59. Her South Berwick home is a museum, open to the public. Her papers are kept at Harvard Library.

07/07/2023

Rollinsford Residence, Fire pit and pool

06/16/2023

Lincoln Ackerman School

06/14/2023

06/14/2023

This mural will serve as a fence to screen the views of an existing transformer at the proposed building on the corners of Deer and Maplewood Streets in Portsmouth.

The Evolving History of the North End:

Near this site was the ropewalk, a long, covered lane where h**p and yarn were spindled and twined into cordage and rigging for Portsmouth's shipyards. John Underwood's ropewalk was later superseded by the railroads in the 1800’s. A century later, Rose Fiandaca, 1893-1980, a Sicilian immigrant, pictured with her husband and sons, was a midwife and a prominent community leader in and beyond Portsmouth's vibrant Italian North End, which was demolished in 1969 as an Urban Renewal project. Rose lived near the railroad station, learned English at the movies and as one of the first to have a telephone she became a critical voice for other immigrants. Her many descendants remember Rose as a bastion of strength and compassion in her family, neighborhood, and city.

11/27/2022

Our Pulpit Rock Residence was featured in the November/December issue of Maine Home+Design Magazine
https://mainehomedesign.com/

11/18/2022

Planting installation at the back side of the new Portsmouth Jazz club, "Jimmy's" on Congress.
Planting by Piscatqua Landscape.

11/16/2022

Pool construction at a private residence in Kittery Point.
Pool installation by Northern Pool and Spa of Eliot, ME
Hardscape by Bob Getman and Company.