PRESERVED PARTNERSHIP

Initial Tropical Plants, Novi, Mich., and Preserved TreeScapes International, Oceanside, Calif.

A busy hotel needs a resting spot, a serene place for weary travelers to relax and regroup. The Detroit, Mich., Westin Metropolitan Airport Hotel features such a stopping point juxtaposed to the frenetic pace and noise of the Detroit airport and concourse.

A partnership between architects, designers and interior plant providers created this place of beauty and calm. Its dim lighting, ideal for relaxation, was not ideal for live bamboo – a high-light plant the client wanted. As a result, Project Manager Ed Snow, Initial Tropical Plants, had to convince the client why preserved material was the right choice. "There were 30 to 40 footcandles at best – and the bamboo would have fallen to pieces in less than a month," Snow says. "It would have been very cost prohibitive."

Snow suggested working with Preserved TreeScapes International, a vendor he knew well. And after Landscape Architect Lee Richardson visited the company and saw the lifelike product, the project moved forward.

Still, Richardson wanted to use some live material. Snow offered low-light selections to fit the Asian theme, like Dracaena Marginata Tips for a grasslike look and Aspidistra for a vertical, dark leaf.

Snow also worked with Preserved TreeScapes to nail down the cane dimensions, quantities and sizes. The canes were constructed to sit on top of vertical steel rods, and the bamboo grove was laid out in advance at the Preserved TreeScapes facility. Each piece of the cane was labeled for easy assembly, and during installation, Richardson and Preserved TreeScapes representatives were on site for consultation in case of any changes or problems with the design.

Communication was the key to success, Snow says. "We kept in touch with each other through the design process and coordinating deliveries," he says, noting that this 28-by-100-foot grove features 400 canes, from 12 to 55 feet tall. A crew of five to 10 completed the 1,200 man-hour project.

IVY LEAGUE

Town & Gardens, New York, N.Y.

Ivy and art mingled at the four-month photographic American Express Rewarding Lives Exhibit in Manhattan. More than 200 linear feet of towering "green walls" offset the contemporary display at the World Financial Center. Crafted by New York’s Town and Gardens, the wall construction required continual problem solving and an eye for detail.

Town and Gardens designed 14-foot plywood wall structures to house florist-grade ivy and sourced all materials for the project, from the 500 3- to 4-foot ivy wall plants to more than 11,000 pounds of specimen stone.

Essentially, the walls held ivy "shelves," which created the look of a solid mass of greenery, says designer Brendan Sheehan. Stability was key. "We had to have bracing and hidden weight elements to stabilize it," Sheehan says. "We also had to think about how (the design) fit in conjunction with the other plywood work and wiring that ran under everything."

Occasionally, aesthetics were altered for the sake of horticulture. "We worked through details like lining the pot cavities so if there was overwatering, there wouldn’t be seepage down the wall," Sheehan says. "The pots were hidden, but with adequate access for installation and maintenance. We used green pots throughout for added discretion, so they didn’t draw attention."

Uniformity, from pots to types of ivy, was paramount to the project’s success, Sheehan says. The shape, size and fullness of the English Ivy had to be the same – it came from one source for consistency.

At the same time, multiple vendors supplied the project’s high-end, specimen stone, Sheehan says. The stone was sourced from Indonesia and available in limited quantities under the project’s tight deadline.

Careful planning and purchasing ensured that plant and stone supplies didn’t dwindle. Sheehan worked from CAD plans developed by the exhibit planners and reformatted them to calculate exact areas and quantities of stone and ivy needed for the design. This turned out to be a smart move, as the client decided to add more shelves of ivy and a gala event using 500 Algerian Ivy plants.

Despite the elaborate plans, some spots began to run short on foliage, Sheehan says. "We prioritized areas and intermingled plant material to even out the look, where appropriate," he says.

Building the walls for the gala introduced new challenges, Sheehan says. The walls used a different cantilever system to weight the front and rear, and false, hinged walls were created for fire exits. A mural also had to be protected to prevent the ivy walls from rocking backwards.

The gala installation was completed while balancing the need for installers at the main exhibit, Sheehan adds. In total, the installation took three to four weeks with a staff of 10 at peak times – occasional restrictions limited how many people could work on site due to other trades.

Knowing that delays could happen, Sheehan came up with a backup plan of activities in other areas to maximize productivity. A backup plan was especially important when union delays held up construction on the main exhibit.

But once Town and Gardens returned to the site, the project kicked back into high gear. Communication and a clear agenda kept everyone on task, Sheehan says. "We assigned people to areas," he says. "The process of installing wall ivy and stone was a routine that repeated itself systematically as the project worked from one end to another."

Sheehan says the relationship of trust formed with the client from the start contributed to this project’s success. "We presented ourselves as a firm that could manage something as volatile as this project," he says. "We had outlined our concerns and put (solutions) into action immediately."