Written by tournesol on May 18th, 2012
All photos courtesy Farthingale Ornamentals
We just recieved images of a recent installation at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Conference Center St. Louis. It really illustrates how sprucing up an existing property with new pots & planters can give a place a “pop”. The facility offers 223 rooms and 37 meeting/banquet rooms. The hotel is actually located in Chesterfield, MO, the largest city in west Saint Louis County with a population of just under 50,000.
Don Hellstern of Farthingale Ornamental & Architectural Stone in Kansas City is a local distributor of Tournesol Siteworks products, and was kind enough to send along these images. Don worked closely with Fred Kovar of the Harrick Group in Chicago, a respected firm specializing in the design of hotel projects nationally. Fred called out an unusual custom color for the Urban Tall pots (see this post for more Urban Tall), “Parrot Orange”. We received a sample, and were able to match the color.
"Parrot Orange" certainly pops against the background
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Posted in Hospitality, Pots, Planters & Site Furnishings, Products | No Responses »
Tags: Custom Color, CWC, CWM Modular, Missouri, Urban Collection
Written by tournesol on May 15th, 2012
All images courtesy Belli Fiori Landscape
While we don’t get involved in many residential projects, it’s nice to see one that comes together as nicely as this. We certainly can’t take much credit. Our pots are lovely on this project, but the real star of the project is Belli Fiori landscaping of Redwood City, CA.
A spectacular residential landscape, with pots as accents
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Posted in High-End Residential, Pots, Planters & Site Furnishings, Products | No Responses »
Tags: Arcade Collection, California, residential, Wilshire Collection
Written by tournesol on May 8th, 2012
image courtesy of BISCO irrigation
[UPDATE 5/18] The entire wall is up, and the Wilshire Box and VertiGreen 3D trellis is up next to it! Looking good, and getting ready to host a seminar about it next month for Boston-area landscapers and designers…
Installation of a Tournesol VGM living wall at BISCO Irrigation, Dedham, MA
One of the advantages of working with irrigation distributors is that they really know how to set up an irrigation system. Tournesol Siteworks partner BISCO Irrigation (with locations throughout New England) installed several living wall systems at their Dedham, MA branch. We took advantage of their work to document in this post how they set it up.
Dedham is located inland of Boston, and is a Zone 6B in the USDA Plant Hardiness Map. They have selected the VGM-10 modules, with a full 8″ soil profile. They are also putting in several other Tournesol green wall options, including a Wilshire Box hanging planter and VertiGreen 3D trellis panel (you can see them to the right in the image above), and a VertiGreen Hybrid trellis panel. The irrigation system uses the Baseline 3200 controller from Baseline Systems, paired with a moisture sensor. Using the Baseline 2-wire system the whole thing can be remotely monitored for water use and soil moisture levels.
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Posted in Commercial, Green Building Products, Green Wall, Hanging Planters, Products | No Responses »
Tags: Bisco Irrigation, Irrigation, living walls, Massachusetts, trellis, VertiGreen, VGM, Wilshire Boxes
Written by tournesol on May 2nd, 2012
Aged Copper Village Collection planters, ready for packaging
While walking across our production floor today, I saw an order going through the final prep and polishing before being packaged up. The pots, our Village Collection VS-2400 in the metal-infused Aged Copper finish, positively glowed. They look great, and will be packaged and shipped shortly.
There’s only one way to get them to look like this. Two of our crew, Anthony and Luis, were putting the finishing touches on the last couple of pots. I took out my cell phone and snapped a few shots of them doing the buffing.
Anthony and Luis, hard at work hand-polishing the finish
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Posted in Company News, Pots, Planters & Site Furnishings | No Responses »
Tags: Aged Copper, metal infused, Village Collection
Written by tournesol on April 23rd, 2012
The Award!!
We recently blogged about our participation on the design team for the Conference Center at the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The landscape architect leading the project, H.M. White Site Architects, applied for and was given an Honor Award for the project.
We’re extremely proud to be named alongside them – it’s our first official award from a chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects! We’ve been doing this a long time, but never has our participation on a design team been recognized. Other firms on the team included Plant Driven Design and Greenlee & Assocs (Horticulturalist), and Wolf Creek Company (Irrigation).
From the letter:
This was a huge collaborative team effort which we could not have done without the expertise and support of a talented consulting team. We would like to congratulate you as a participant on this endeavor.
Thanks again to Sam Lawrence, Hank White, and all their collaborators for including us on this exciting project.
Posted in Company News, Projects, Public Projects | No Responses »
Tags: ASLA, awards, Hypertufa, Saudi Arabia
Written by tournesol on April 19th, 2012
Mi Dia restaurant patio, Dallas, TX
In 2008 we fabricated a custom Urban planter for a retail mall project in Florida. The planter was designed to hide bollards, so was designed specifically to be the same size as our 24″ square, but 48″ tall. Once that project was complete, we adapted the tool for our own use – and the Urban Tall planter was born.
The pot is something of a “red-headed stepchild”. It is has different proportions than the rest of the Urban Collection, and so only garners one line in our marketing materials. Nevertheless, it has become one of our more popular planters. Although it doesn’t get much attention, we felt it deserves it’s own post.
The planters in the image above and below were specified & installed by GHA Architecture/Development of Dallas, TX. The Mi Dia From Scratch restaurant, and the neighboring Winewood Restaurant (both located in Grapevine) used the URT-2400 with our CWC-R1850 container irrigation self-watering insert. All the containers were delivered in the T-0 texture in black.
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Posted in Commercial, Company News, Hospitality, Multi-Family Residential, Pots, Planters & Site Furnishings, Products | 2 Responses »
Tags: California, container irrigation, New York, Texas, Urban Collection, Urban Tall
Written by tournesol on April 3rd, 2012
Original concept for the King Abdullah Financial District Conference Center
We’ve done a lot of unusual projects over the years, but the KAFD Conference Center is probably the most exciting one we’ve come across. Located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the structure is covered with over 15,000sf of modular green roof, with nearly 10,000sf of living wall inside.
Tournesol Siteworks was invited to participate on the design team by HM White Site Architects, who are responsible for the breakthrough modular green roof design. The building, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York City, is the first major element in the new development slated to be the home of new banking and financial infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The project will utilize a number of remarkable environmental construction technologies to reach an expected LEED Gold status.
KAFD Elevation
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Posted in Company News, Green Building Products, Green Wall, Public Projects | No Responses »
Tags: Custom, design services, Green Roof, International, Living Wall, Saudi Arabia
Written by tournesol on March 20th, 2012
If you’re browsing through this month’s copy of Landscape Architecture magazine, you’re likely to run across this ad on page 19. We’re beginning to promote our partnership with Street & Garden Furniture of Australia, and featuring our use of upcycled urban Boulevard™ Wood.
For those not familiar with Boulevard, we’re using wood felled in typical urban situations (that would usually end up in the landfill), treating it with a special high-temperature process, and creating a valuable wood that will last for the life of the bench. It is directly comparable with tropical hardwoods like Ipe or Teak, without the environmental baggage.
Call any of our sales team to find out more about upcycling, while eliminating the need for deforestation in the Amazon!
Posted in Company News | No Responses »
Tags: Boulevard Wood, Northlakes Collection, Street & Garden
Written by tournesol on March 12th, 2012
Urban lightweight concrete planters at Park Place Retail in Irvine, CA
We recently provided lightweight GFRC concrete containers for Shops at Park Place in Irvine, CA. This retail project is part of the 3 million square foot Park Place mixed-use project, containing class-A office, residential and retail areas. The design, by LPA, Inc. (also of Irvine), was purchased dircectly by the owner (Madison Marquette) and installed by general contractor JM Stitt.
Note the custom tall planters behind the Urban Collection in front
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Posted in Container Irrigation Systems, Pots, Planters & Site Furnishings, Products, Retail | No Responses »
Tags: California, Custom, GFRC, Urban Collection, Wilshire Collection
Written by tournesol on March 5th, 2012
Checking out the new TWIG - All images courtesy of Stacey Nord, Ewing Irrigation
As most of you probably realize, Tournesol Siteworks sells most of our product through distributor partners. It’s always a pleasure to host our partners at our plant, and show them what we’re up to.
Last week we had 16 members of Ewing Irrigation‘s Northern California sales team come by for training and a tour. Not only that, we treated them to lunch, too!
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Posted in Company News | No Responses »
Tags: Ewing Irrigation, quick ship, Training
