No Project Too Small or Too Large

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.