Patrick Blanc Plants a Vertical Garden in Tacoma

Patrick Blanc gets around...that's for sure! He gets my vote as "king of urban greenscapers."

Source: seattletimes.nwsource.com
Via: Veg.itecture.net

VERTICAL GARDENS are literally climbing in popularity, and Tacoma is out front with a green wall designed by the man who invented them. French botanist and artist Patrick Blanc's 800-square-foot vertical garden for the Goodwill-Milgard Work Opportunity Center was unveiled in September. It graces the entrance of an imposing new building designed by BCRA Architects, and is sufficiently large and fluffy to be clearly visible from busy Tacoma Avenue.

Blanc visited the City of Destiny last summer to supervise the wall's installation, and gave a talk about his work at the Washington State History Museum. Just picture a slip of a green-haired man enthusing about bringing nature back to cities while wearing slim green pants and sporting long, talon-like green fingernails.

The Goodwill's planted wall is as unusual and flamboyant as its designer. Thousands of multihued foliage plants run in diagonal ribbons across its 20-by-40-foot surface. Ferns and shrubs, heucheras and hellebores billow out from the wall. Liriope and Japanese forest grass sprout as if by magic. Out of the 96 different kinds of plants, a few, like the epimedium, are struggling. But most appear to be thriving, including plants like yews, andromeda and iris so unlikely to be growing high up in the sky you can't quite believe your eyes.

Comments

[Lushe]

It is very easy to spot Patrick Blanc designs. I love the ribbon effect in the vertical garden.

Lushe
www.lushe.com.au

[manny]

Good post
Turning a garden on its side to create a verdant, vertical surface not only looks good but promotes wildlife, good air quality and sustainabilty too
Most living wall designs can work in a home environment and more and more people are installing them