Farmhouse with sod roof, western Norway, ca. 1890-1910, via Fylkesarkivet i Sogn go Fjordane Commons on flickr.
The stone foundation, steps, and terracing are beautiful. Also note the ladder-type device that the man on the right is using to pick fruit. Click on the image for a larger view.
Placing potted bay trees on the east wing terrace, White House, Washington, D.C., between 1910 and 1917, by Harris & Ewing, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (both photos).
East terrace, White House, 1923, by National Photo Company.
After I took a number of photos of the hanging plant columns of the Basel Museum of Culture (during our visit at Thanksgiving), I turned my attention to the courtyard around them — the Schürhof — the floor of which is largely a set of low, wide steps descending to the museum lobby and gift shop.
The street entrance to the courtyard and thus to the museum is through a simple archway on the Münsterplatz.
Before the museum was renovated in 2011 by Herzog & de Meuron, the Schürhof* was not open to the public. The museum shared a door with the Museum of Natural Sciences around the corner.
Looking at a “before” photo (here, fourth image), the old courtyard appears to have been used at least partly as a parking lot.
The renovation excavated it to open up a new museum entrance in the base of the existing 1917 neoclassical building.
The other buildings that enclose the Schürhof are medieval.
Above and below are three views from upper windows inside the museum.
You can see a plan of the courtyard here (fifth image).
Here’s another steps/ramp (driveway) combination that I snapped during our recent travels — at the back of DACOR Bacon House, an historic former residence a couple of blocks from the White House in Washington, D.C.
I like the mix of old brick and pebbly concrete.
BELOW: In front of a D.C. office building, I also spotted this nice solution to those sharp planting bed corners that are always bare dirt because people cut across them.
enclos*ure 