The project, to redevelop and landscape the grounds of Henderson House, will bring the amount of money spent on the property since 2012 to almost $1million.
Henderson House Trust chairman, artist Grahame Sydney, said trustees had ''long been aware'' the setting for the architecturally significant property ''is not as appropriate as it might be''.
The house - designed by Austrian architect Ernst Plischke in the 1950s - was the home of Alexandra arts philanthropists, the late Barbara and Russell Henderson, and since 2007 has been host to the Henderson House invitation-only artists-in-residence programme.
About $470,000 was spent renovating the house in 2012 and more than $110,000 was spent in 2016-17 turning an external garage and workshop into an art studio.
Fundraising for the landscaping project would now begin. Major funders would be approached and an adjoining section sold, and it was hoped ''major'' landscaping work would be done in the next year or two, Sydney said.
Trustees were talking to landscape architects ''with experience in the Central Otago district'' about transforming the Henderson House section into ''a more natural environment: schist rocks, tussock, native plantings, etc''.
It would be a ''very large-scale project and will result in a dramatic change to the way the house sits on its beautiful site overlooking the Clutha and township ... The intention is to allow the Plischke house to be seen at its best, and to make it a beautiful experience for all who come to see it, or live there on the residency.''
