landscaping ideas front face

so we have a big ugly sloping yard of unhappy summertime grass needing far too much water and care for my taste.Besides afterall, who wants to stand outside in their front yard caring for grass when the backyard is SO much more inviting- and we ARE all antisocial eichler owners who live in walled off boxes unless invited over for drinks around here... ha. Really, their is too much street traffic to picture the front face as anything but a first appearance/ entrance and it just needs some simple feng shui and xeriscaping. The old sweetgum is really messy, prickly and gnarled, roots climbing over all the grass, tripping innocent passerbys soon and unfortunatley- has made desigjns on our sewer lateral. Tree guys want alot to remove it. uckk. so, after all the contemplating, I will probably remove it... but I need a tall fast growing full shade providing tree for a south facing front in need of lots of shade- hmmm. ( and one that won't get the sewer again) I am stuck here. any ideas anyone?