Full Service (aka Control Issues)
It all begins with an idea.
one uptown newport
We started design efforts for the recently completed One Uptown Newport shortly after the studio opened and we were developing our core principles and design process. As the project started one core principle became paramount - full-service means everything. Literally everything.
From the concept design drawings to final material selections, approvals, and installation review we followed through on the ideas with details, materials, and construction techniques to make it a reality.
Water Features
Many of our projects in Southern California include water features, whether it’s a pool, spa, or a focal element, water is an incredibly dynamic design component in landscape design. One Uptown Newport is no exception. The focal point of the public paseo was a water table set within a cobble filled receiving pool.
We wanted the water to add the noise, reflection, and pattern to the open space, so we started with a simple idea that required discipline and attention to detail.
The Process
Generating details for the effects, activity, and materials, along with coordination with installation team and client group, reviewing shop drawings and submittals are all necessary for even the most “simple” of amenity elements.
Our drawings are created to provide the craftspeople with a clear understanding of the design intent, but they’re the experts and should be relied on as such during the process.
Pre-construction meetings lay out the expectations and communication channels, including a list of submittals needed to cover the landscape scope. From the time the set goes public to the first chalk line is dropped, we stay connected.
The Real Work
We’re on site as much as possible in order to confirm the vision is being implemented and we assist our clients in the event it isn’t.
All of the dreaming and drawing come down to the work in the trenches. The more we’re there with the fabricators, but more we learn to make bigger dreams and better drawings.
Results
Patience (and dedication) are needed to fulfill the intent of our designs and provide clients and communities with the promised results.
No Project Too Small or Too Large
It all begins with an idea.
Knife Pleat
No project is too big or too small for our most trusted clients and collaborators. We’re open to any scale or scope project in order to work with them and build on a relationship. Take the Knife Pleat restaurant at South Coast Plaza. Johnson Fain completed the renovation of a 5,000 square foot, 110-seat restaurant, kitchen and dining patio for Michelin-starred chef Tony Esnault and restauranteur Yassmin Sarmadi.
The original landscape design was simple enough; assist in creating a green wall for the outdoor dining patio. The planting area was limited due to furniture layout, circulation needs, and the 4th floor location over existing high-end retail shops, so we provided efficient planter layout, green wall structure on the limestone wall and planting selections to connect with the French cuisine. Simple and efficient.
Extra Level Design Service
Then came the non-traditional design effort. To finish out the refined dining experience a human touch was needed in the landscape to match the refined palette of modern, muted materials and dramatic accent colors and textures at a level we don’t often have the opportunity to explore in our commercial projects.
Personal Touch
We shopped for pots that would fit the character and attitude of a French kitchen, with plant materials that would create a sculptural pop and unexpected moment in an otherwise elegant atmosphere.
Pottery was selected to give an interesting textural and size composition – smooth, rough, tall, low urns – with “filler, thriller, spiller” plant combinations, which is a mainstay of our pottery planting.
We collaborated with Rolling Greens in the DTLA Arts District to select, purchase, plant and install the pottery.
Small Design / Big Impact
As is often the case, the smallest projects can require the most effort, but the results cannot be denied.
Design happens at all levels of the process and at all scales. so it’s important that we follow through from the first sketch to the installation
Exploring this level of design is a welcomed change from larger, more expansive site work. It allows us to flex the personal scale design muscles of texture, form, color and balance that will be applied to the next urban in-fill commercial or residential design.