During the design phase of a beautiful New York apartment, John Mini Landscapes were asked to design a living wall to hide this unsightly column that was obstructing the views of Central Park. The project was on a tight deadline and the team at John Mini needed a solution that could be quickly designed and configured and that would bring a gorgeous, instant result before the client moved in.
They were adamant that the wall look 100% finished immediately after installation, had an automated, low maintenance irrigation system and could be installed by their team. Take a look how we created this Award winning greenwall.
The GrowUp team quickly prepared a CAD drawing using the GrowUp Greenwall standard modular components. John Mini was able to use the drawing to estimate the installation time as well as the number of plants required.
John Mini configured a custom fiberglass catch tank to hold the water and everything else was shipped directly from the GrowUp warehouse. Since all components are standard there was no customization to be done and the team could work directly from the drawing and the standard installation instructions.
The wall was first wrapped in a black waterproof sheet to ensure any water that may get to the wall would be diverted to the catch tanks below.
Once the sheeting was up the rails were screwed to the wall. Screwing the rails into the concrete column was not an easy task but the team persisted and were rewarded with a great platform on which to design their plant layout.
The irrigation line was installed and tested before the plants were brought in.
All plants were planted off-site into the GrowUp Pots and Growbags, brought on site and hung the same day. This is a big advantage of the GrowUp planting method as it eliminates time and mess on site, and since the plants are usually the last item installed this is really useful.
By the time the team left the site their first GrowUp project was complete.
After the client had lived with the wall for some time they decided on a change of look for the wall and wanted something a little “tamer”. The benefit of the modular system with plants planted in their own containers is that plants can be easily swapped out. The change of direction from the client was easily handled, as evidenced by the final picture below.
This unusual design idea would bring 256 beautiful plants into the space, make the column a feature of the apartment and contribute to cleaning the air and softening the environment.
John Min won Gold in 2018 in the Greenwall Category at the International Plantscape Awards, presented by American Hort.
We love the sustainable building design of this greenwall column. The flexibility of the GrowUp Modular Greenwall System allows designers and landscapers to bring plants into unique spaces and designs without having to do much custom work at all. We offer complimentary design consultations for any size projects and would love to meet with you to explore the many options that greenwalls can bring to your designs.
Learn about our Professional solutions today. Or book a call with us to discuss your next greenwall project.