Surprise these are Resin!

In 2009, after 4 years of scouring catalogues and online sources for containers/planters/pots what have you, I made a decision to design and make our own. They are handmade here in New York. Hand finished. Hand inspected. Hand everything. These are made with love and care. They are so personal to me that I’ve named them each. Collectively they are called Swingers—those who hob-nob and get around town with the in-crowd. Above is Rusty. He has real iron in the gel coat, so he will continue to patina through out his life.
Swingers are in two sizes, A and B. Rusty is in A and B above, A’s are square and B’s are rectangles. Here Tara makes up a row of 4 B’s.

In order to unite Swingers I designed Cousins. These are corner pieces that, just like Swingers are made of resin; however these are each unique in how they form a corner. You can see the four corner shapes above. These create an unlimited number of configurations: perfect for rooftop or elevated gardens!

I will design a unique container for your firm. This is a great way to be able to easily specify containers that you are familiar with and will work as an integral part of all your designs.

Even something unique, like this one that has a Solar Powered LED light strip integrated into the face. Pretty cool! Stop by and get an order started: www.justterraces.com/products

Recently, I began looking for a particular shade of green for a new line of containers with a Key West flavor. While there I tried to find the quintessential ‘Key’s Green’.

I even found inspiration at the Key West airport.

When I got back I considered a piece of wall art in my own apartment.

My hunt for this Key’s Green, as I’ll call it, hasn’t come to an end. What I’m looking for the color that makes me feel the way I feel in The Keys. It’s a balmy, laid-back, feel-good green. It should feel like this:

Now onto the containers shape…

Here people are as colorful as the sunset on Mallory Square.

And the wildlife is as uninhibited and as colorful as the people.

Key West is a dropping off point–a place you don’t have to mind your own baggage. People who live here are aware of their surroundings and consequently feel safe to be unguarded. The sign, “Welcome to Paradise” announces everyone is welcome–and many end up staying.

Rich in history, from President’s staying in the Little White House and PanAm’s first international flight to Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad and the world’s largest cigar manufacturing operations. Fantasy Fest, Hemingway and Banyan Trees are also part of this limited list of what make Key West incomparable. There’s also architecture, climate and the beauty of catching your own extraordinary meals.

It’s also a community that values what they have. These citizens are stewards and in their own voices maintain Key West as a paradise for everyone to enjoy. To be here is to have found your own treasure.

To my eyes and senses the whole experience has been consistently satisfying and delightful, because the Disney magic continues! In the world today, lean excellence comes with rich expense, and this is how many creative firms are trying to keep profits and still satisfy clients. It is a reassuring visit. I feel renewed basking in Disney’s mission of being the best.

For 3 or 4 years I’ve been surrounded by the economy’s voodoo which has made half way and so-so acceptable, because ‘who can really work that hard to make things better when you’ve taken a pay cut?’ Disney’s Animal Kingdom employees whisper ‘Good morning’ as you read the paper in front of the fireplace. And Disney is leading stewardship of wildlife protection and keeping people employed. With artwork from all over Africa and bon mot to lift your spirits, It’s been a delight!

One project in particular stood out. It was Chip and Dale’s Treehouse at Disney’s Toontown. As the set designer, I along with a team of other creatives came up with incredible concepts for this attraction; a slide that took one down into an acorn (ball) crawl chamber that opened to a secret lair where interactive play stations echoed the wily schemes the chipmunks. This early model of the tree house still had all of that possibility—see the slide that would take you down into all the fun!

Coincidentally, I discovered a video on Youtube that revealed the tree house to be a colossal disappointment. I wasn’t expecting such a negative response to what had become such an innocuous attraction. As I watched it, I shared the point of view. I thought back to 1991, when I had spent hours of my life working to make this tree house fun and worthwhile. I also remembered the slow demise of the good and worthwhile ideas. As a team we let that happen. Now 20 years later a Disney guest suggests, it’s a ‘why bother’.
That’s me when Toontown opened; I knew the tree house was dead wood.

So how do I read this ‘ring’ in my life? It reminds me of my weak motives where I traded my creative convictions just to make money or to stay employed. This ‘ring’ also stands as a reminder to stand firm and stay true to what matters.

Next, the people I get to enjoy and work with and serve. What could I do without the incredible talents and kind committed personalities of my team and my clients. It’s a sort of happy family that’s on a magic carpet ride together to find a rooftop of enchantment. At least that’s our destination. And what fun!!

The great thing about rejoicing is that it is limitless. There is so much to rejoice about, the only governor is our heart and attitude. The personalities of the incredible people I get to work with is only part of why I feel like rejoicing, its also what they can do and how they do it that causes me to simply blow a gasket with delight, because without them and their ingenuity, I don’t know how I’d get any of my ideas out there. Including one LED lit planter fabricated by Marco Tintori for an event Just Terraces sponsored with Audi.

And this rare artistry in woodworking by Micah Finkel and Colm O’Leary.

As this wintertime just begins to set in and January holds all the promise of the new, I guess I’m taking stock of new ideas, new projects to pursue, relationships to forge or perhaps forgo. One thing is for sure, I’m totally pumped for Just Terraces, our 7th year and what this year is going to bring. I’m rejoicing in what’s not even here yet, our Scotch Broom! Join me.

We no longer have our incredibly wonderful office on 75th Street. This office was for our clients to come and meet us over the comfort of an espresso or a glass of wine—but everyone preferred we visit them. Happily, my home is near the office and the transitionto my apartment was easy. Now many of the fixtures that were once a part of the office have been integrated into my own home/office. My home feels like a home while hosting all the technology and organizational benefits of an office.

The staff of Just Terraces was reduced to myself and my partner Biscuit. Even he had enough and felt it was time to go to be with all the other great dogs who’ve blessed everyone of us. He is greatly missed and I feel the great call to open my home and heart to another Yellow Lab. Time will tell.

This great call is not only a beckoning to our heart to allow a dog or a loved one to impose upon us and find shelter and protection, but to our very soul and spirit to do what indeed we ought to do in every endeavor. I have been stymied by the above mentioned hands on wheel business. It seems essential in order to stay in business. Curiously there are some of us gifted with the ability to blast through it all. I sadly find it nearly debilitating and crawl to my sketchpad after the forms have been filed and my Accountants Copy of Quick Books has been created.

I am not knee jerking to resolve (though I do need to do this) in this New Year, I am responding to this greater thing—a call. My delight. My passion. My hope. My joy. My becoming. Not a gardener, not a planter, not a landscape architect (but these souls too), but one who delights in the outdoors and creates in it free of dogma, license (except artistic) and regulation. So then, onward!

Then while studying Landscape Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design I designed the grounds of an estate on Bellevue Avenue in Newport. I took a year off from college and I interned at a British firm in London and was part of a design team on the Tate Gallery, the Channel Tunnel, the M-25 expansion and many other fascinating projects. As an intern in New York City, I worked on details for the Broadway Malls.

After college graduation I relocated to Los Angeles and worked as an urban forester for Tree People. After numerous celebrity tree-planting events I moved on to designing the front yards and pool areas for celebrity clients. This was when I could feel the amounts of creativity and inspiration building; an exhilarating experience. In 1989 I was hired by the Walt Disney Company’s theme park division Imagineering to work in Paris on what was then EuroDisneyland, now Paris Disney. I worked with a team of landscape architects on the Guest Entry Sequence, which dictated that once guests went through the toll plaza the magic began. Shortly thereafter I was asked to design artificial foliage. This combined my experience in fine art and plant materials.

Back in Glendale, California I became a set designer working for several years on concepts for new attractions, such as Tower of Terror and Toontown. As a freelance art director I helped to realize a rooftop theme park in Bangkok.

My last job in Los Angeles was as an art director for Universal Studios creating Dr. Seuss’s first real environment in Orlando and the experience for Jaws and Waterworld in Osaka, Japan.

A lot of creative energy and water was needed to bring forth ideas and sustain these environments; though now at 31 years old I felt my life was more important than award winning design. I moved back to New York just before being relocated to Japan. For 8 years, 1997-2005 I reinvented my talents for the East Coast. My creativity was used for businesses such as News Corporation, ABC, Disney Channel, Pfizer, Bank of America, Avon and Hewlett-Packard. I was withering and by January 2005 I felt like I would never see ‘creative water’ again. My ideas were processed, picked apart, analyzed for ROI, tested amongst the various lines of business. These temporary environments were only realized at the same level of creativity as the brand manager’s belief in their product. My skills were being used like dice, a good roll and I felt the satisfaction of rewarding design a bad roll and I just wanted the paycheck to clear. Just Terraces began as a result of a wedding present: I bought terra cotta containers, plants and a teak café table and chairs for a friend’s balcony.

From that perch I looked out over the city full of outdoor spaces, and after months of praying for inspiration voila: design – outdoors – improving – delighting – experiencing it all came together in a quick flash. My talents and passion intertwined. Suddenly in May of 2005 the creative and sustaining irrigation system was turned on. I was on course to do what I loved and had over 25 years of experience to accomplish. What I didn’t realize was that inspiration and creativity can get bogged down and thwarted in the business side or ‘rubber-meets-road’ side of a creative business. Water is not only necessary to keep alive but in the right amounts it will allow growth and vitality. My quest at the end of 2005, my first season was to stay alive and I needed to sharpen my landscape design pencil again. I took a consulting gig in Hong Kong where I created outdoor environments in Chongjing for Hilton and Shanghai for Hyatt. Away from the business side of Just Terraces, I felt I could rebuild confidence and strengthen the pathos of the designer I was.