The Making of Longchamp’s “Green Facade”
As we move full steam ahead on our 2016 projects, here’s a “behind-the-scenes” throwback from last year showing the making of our “green wall” at Longchamp on the Upper East Side. For the project, an elegant streetfront plant display was desired to adorn the vertical face of the parapet of their Madison Avenue fashion store, both to embody the brand’s exclusivity and to attract the window shoppers below. With program parameters of low maintenance needs, year-round visual interest, and minimal soil capacity, we developed a naturalistic composition of interwoven faux vines, ferns, and broadleaf shrubs growing in what appears to be an organic, undulating fashion.
Brainstorming sessions and design charrettes were followed by hours of meticulous and creative manual teamwork to weave together and reinforce multiple layers of UV-resistant artificial plants onto a heavy-gauge mesh support structure.
The finalized composition was transported to the site in four sections, then hoisted above the store’s entrance, fit into place, and securely fastened to the building’s façade. Voila!
