Goodwill Green Wall

I just returned from a great trip up to Tacoma (1 hr south of Seattle) and then north for an overnight stay in Seattle, making a great working/playing couple of days (aside from the lack of internet access). The purpose of the visit was to take advantage of one of those rare opportunities to see Patrick Blanc, master purveyor of the Vertical Garden, speaking about his work. His hour long 'talk' at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, was rapid-fire, and if you kept up, offered some insight into the creative genius behind his extensive body of work.


:: image via zwang11

The green hair and spike-like fingernails were on stage along with casual black shirt and bright green pants, and Blanc gave some overview of his inspiration (as we know nature), his work (worldwide and well received), and his motivations. These he candidly described mainly as the ability to provide nature into the city (vs. say specific sustainability), an issue that is more and more necessary as urbanization leads more folks to the city than the country. He even gave a glimpse behind the curtain, showing off some of the details of the system he employs for his work with interior and exterior projects.

Why, may you ask, is Patrick Blanc in Tacoma? Well, the occasion was to officially unveil his newest project (and the first exterior Vertical Garden designed by Blanc in the United States), at the Tacoma Goodwill-Millgard Work Opportunity Center, designed by BCRA Architects in Tacoma (see a YouTube video of the project here for more info).


:: image via Tacoma Goodwill

As you can see from the image above, a panel to the left of the main entrance (green vertical band) was originally planned to contain a mural. After seeing the work of Blanc, the clients and architects decided to make this a growing feature, enlisting the services of the internationally renowned designer and most commonly referenced master of the vertical garden. The result, newly installed (by Teufel Nursery and Landscape) and a mere two months young, is pretty damn cool.


:: images copyright - Jason A. King

The wall is approximately 800 sf, measuring 20'x40' and hovering above the ground. Seems they may have achieved the original mural, only this time its alive. A few pics for now (apologies, as the light wasn't great for photographs, but you get the idea).




:: images copyright - Jason A. King

The wall includes almost 100 species of plants, hand picked by Blanc based on the aspect of the wall and culled from local natural analogs of nature, tried and true species, and local availability. The combination of herbaceous and woody plants are arranged in the typical tapestry of similar bands - which was more striking when he showed slides of some of these inspirations during his talk.


:: image copyright - Jason A. King

And one aspect that was awesome was to be able to get up close and personal, parsing the simple layering of felt pockets for planting and the construction aspects of these walls.




:: images copyright - Jason A. King

While this is the early visual feast, stay tuned for a follow up that takes a more technical pass at the system configuration, components, plantings, and well, beautiful simplicity of the work. It's in a word 'amazing' to see in real life.