Boutique Design - July/August 2016 - 48

spot on the "Boutique Design Power Players: Women Leaders in
Hospitality" panel discussion at the 2016 Boutique Design New
York (BDNY) trade fair in November.
That appearance will follow Ruddick's recent release of her first
book, "Wild By Design: Strategies for Creating Life-Enhancing
Landscapes." Ruddick wrote that she hopes that work "will give
readers an idea of how they might try to bridge two realms that
were traditionally held distant: the hyper-orderly and aestheticized
world of designers, and the sometimes mucky but exquisitely
beautiful world of ecologists."
The book also includes Ruddick's wry recollection of when her
design aspirations clashed with yet another world: that of the
weed police. Specifically, she found herself in front of a judge
because the greenery in her front yard had grown taller than the
10 inches allowed by local law as part of what Ruddick referred to
as an "ad hoc reforestation process."
To find out if Ruddick beat the rap-and get clued into a slew of
eye-opening insights into how her design principles are applicable
to hospitality spaces-read on.
HOW HAS THE LAUNCH OF SUCH ECO-FRIENDLY BRANDS AS
STARWOOD CAPITAL'S 1 HOTELS AND INTERCONTINENTAL
HOTELS GROUP'S EVEN FLAG IMPACTED CLIENT AND GUEST
EXPECTATIONS ABOUT LANDSCAPE DESIGN, EXPECIALLY
WHEN IT COMES TO THE KINDS OF NATURAL MATERIALS THAT
CAN BE USED IN INTERIORS?

2

Clients seem to be much more open to native plantings and a
naturalized look, although there still has to be a wow factor that
is more pronounced than on a typical residential project. Guests
at Shillim, in the Western Ghats of India, remark that the experience of the landscape-feeling immersed in nature-is restorative, even healing. They seem to understand the beneficial
effects of being in a natural environment.
IN MORE GENERAL TERMS, HOW IS INTERIOR LANDSCAPE
DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE CHANGING HOTELS AND RESORTS?

HOW CAN ANY HOTEL START TO MOVE ITS EXTERIOR AND
INTERIOR LANDSCAPING TO LESS OF A "HELMET-HAIR"
LOOK, THAT IS, NOT SO MUCH IN THE WAY OF CUT FLOWERS,
BONSAI'ED AND SCUPLTED GREENERY, ETC.?

Integrating plantings into furnishings, walls, etc., is an opportunity,
but requires skilled maintenance and monitoring. Because of light
limitations, we have been doing forest plantings-ferns, mosses,
even trees-in interior spaces. Our Biscayne Bay project-which
involved renovating a Florida villa on an extraordinary site that
offers vistas of both the water and the Miami skyline-included the
use of bromeliads, which grow directly on trees and other vertical
48

boutiquedesign.com july + august 2016

3

2 Ruddick says the client's unexpected
addition of Spencer Finch's "Lunar
Lander" environmental art piece
at the front of a villa overlooking
Florida's Biscayne Bay prompted
her to add some Bismarck palms to
the adjoining landscape to bring the
piece down to scale.

3 Ruddick was brought into the planning
for the Shillim Institute and Retreat
in India at its beginning-which, she
notes, is relatively rare. Too often,
landscape designers become part
of the process toward the end of the
project, resulting in what she calls a
"parsley around the pig" approach.

SCOT T FR ANCIS (2) MARGIE RU DDICK (3)

I think we have to move to the next generation beyond living walls,
for one. We are doing more diorama-like installations, which feel
like layered landscapes. Integrating plants into furnishings is also a
new direction, not just hanging vertically. For a commercial atrium
in Metropark, New Jersey, we did a "living wall" that is actually a
room surrounded by a tropical forest-like planting, so it feels as if
you are discovering the remnant of a building in a forest.
http://www.boutiquedesign.com
Boutique Design - July/August 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boutique Design - July/August 2016
