New Game in Town

Palm Beach and South Florida happens to have wonderful landscape architects, who, though they may be based here, work all over the United States—and in some cases in Europe, and all over the world.

Sanchez and Maddux

(561) 655-9006

www.sanchezandmaddux.net

There is, of course, Sanchez and Maddux, with Jorge Sanchez and Phil Maddux, who are the soul of the book,  Stewards of the Land. 

This lovely book shows off some of their beautiful work, but I have been the lucky person who has gotten to see much of it in person.  Here are some pictures of my very favourite garden in Palm Beach, which, when I was chairman of House and Garden Day for the Garden Club of Palm Beach, I featured on our tour.  It was all based on the great kapok trees, which are amazing ancient trees which were here on earth during the reign of the dinosaurs—really!  Truly! —and which are rare, rare, rare today.  That is a kapok tree on the cover of their book, and practically every child in Palm Beach has carved his initials on it.  Ridgely insists that his are there, but that the tree has grown so that they are too high to see.  Hmmm…..things that make you go “hmmmm.”

(I say, “fools” names, like fools faces’, always…..etc. Etc)

Anyway, here are some pictures of that wonderful garden

These are pictures taken in just one of their magnificent gardens.  They have done so many more, but we all get to have favourites in life, and this garden is mine.

Morgan Wheelock Inc.

(561) 585-8577

www.morganwheelock.com

Another wonderful landscape architect based here in Palm Beach (with a home office in Boston) is Morgan Wheelock.  I met Morgan years ago, back when we used to rent a house on Ram Island Farm in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and he was in the house next to us, but I didn’t get to work with him until we did a job together in Fort Worth, Texas, and I was allowed to choose an architect and a landscape architect for the job.  Oh, my golly, what fun we had!

The following are some of the pictures from that job—I told Morgan after we had finished, that if he had died just after he had completed this garden, that it was still worthwhile that he had lived at all.  Look and see, as Ozymandius said…..

The garden was on the edge of an arroyo (a steep one, like a cliff) and it had hanging gardens and water runnels and a beautiful garden luncheon pavilion, but it was never, never over the top.  Of course, the architect was Joseph E. Dixon, III, from New York City who is a master at understated luxury.  The great thing about this job was how all three of us worked together.  The client called us “the team,” and we were.  Afterwards, whenever she wanted to start a new project, (and happily for us there were many) she would call and say, “get the team together.”

The gardens below are at an amazing place on the ocean here in Palm Beach.  Morgan worked very closely with the owner who has since died, and it is my all-time favourite house—just a dream taken from Corfu and distilled into a magical spot.  I can say this with aplomb, because I had nothing to do with it—except to love it.

Now here is a house with its gardens—again I got to choose the architect (I chose Richard Sammons of Fairfax and Sammonds from New York and Palm Beach), and I got Jorge and Morgan together to do the gardens—I, of course, did the insides.  It is so beautiful—I’m sorry if I’m bragging, but it is.

Alan Stopek

Efflorescence Landscape Design

(561) 793-7303

Coconut2@gate.net

Another landscape architect with whom I have worked closely is Alan Stopek—Alan did the lovely house below, so that from every window a beautiful view was created, even though the actual property was quite small, a real in-town house.  He is a lovely, gentle man who, like both Jorge and Morgan above, is knowledgeable about art and music and literature, just like all the great architects are.  I have worked with him time and again, and clients love him as a person in addition to being an artist.  As do I.

Fernando Wong

Miami Beach

(305) 321-0546

Also through my office at (561) 655-5489

So who is the new game in town?  Just the most fun people, Fernando Wong and Tim Johnson who are going to be renting office space from me, and whom I will thus see on a regular basis.

Based in Miami (and now Palm Beach too), Fernando Wong is the most sought after landscape designer in Miami. Called “a design genius with the soul of a poet,” by the editor of Home and Design magazine, he has worked for many celebrities, but this has not seemed to alter his quiet, sweet demeanor one bit. I met him and his partner, Tim Johnson,  when we were both working on the DCOTA showhouse last winter.  They were doing the balcony off of a master bedroom which we were doing, and the amazing thing was that, although we never met each other until we were both almost complete, we were moving in such similar directions.  We were both using a blue and white colour scheme and we were both aiming for a mid-century look.  Fernando was receiving an award that week for outstanding new landscape architect, so, of course, we had to go see him get it, which was very exciting.  Anyway, we just became fast friends, and that is still the case.  They are doing a large job here in Palm Beach which I will soon be able to see, but in the meantime, here are some pictures of work they have completed in Coconut Grove.

Like Morgan Wheelock, Fernando draws beautifully.  You can see some of his sketches if you Google him and then go to the socialmiami.com site.  The ability to draw is a great help for clients who have less “vision,” which, actually, is most people.

These are wonderful young people, and they will be wonderful to work with—as with many young “new games”, they will give a lot of time to give to your project, so it would be very worth while getting in touch with them.  You will always be able to leave a message for them at my office, Leta Austin Foster & Associates (561) 655-5489.

Nota bena: although they will be renting office space through me, we are not associated, and to use them does not mean you need to use me.

Well, I certainly think I have given you a great source list today.  Now is the time to dream of what you want, and then give one of them a ring—or an e-mail. 

XOXO LETA