Indoor Planting a Focal Point of Resort Project

By Michael Lewis,
Foliage Design Systems vice-president and national sales director.

It's not often that a commercial interior landscaper gets the opportunity to participate in a project the size of Marriott's Grande Lakes Orlando Resort. With a 1,000 room J.W. Marriott, 584 room Ritz-Carlton, two convention centers totaling 72,000 square feet, a three-story, 40,000 square foot luxury spa, and 18 hole golf course with clubhouse on 500 acres, this project is one of the largest hospitality developments in Florida, as well as the largest Marriott property currently under development in the country.

Seeing this project through concept development, plant specification and installation has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences in Foliage Design Systems' (FDS) history. Over the last 30 years, many other large projects have been designed and built by the company across the country, but none have encompassed the wide range of design and installation expertise required on this unique project.

Working with one onsite project design manager and two offsite interior design teams, Michael Lewis, FDS vice-president and national sales director, worked from six sets of building drawings in developing the interior plant specifications for this huge project.

Many unusual plant varieties were used, including 14-foot tall Aralia elegantissima trees, Podocarpus gracilior standards, tree-form lakeview jasmine, dwarf calamondin orange bushes, ponytail palms and foxtail asparagus fern. Vibrant color was also used throughout the property by incorporating numerous blooming plants, exotic bromeliads and live orchid displays into the design scheme.

Design challenges included low light levels which restricted the use of many plants in certain locations, owner provided decorative containers not large enough to house required plant material, and furniture plans that changed many times during installation.

Prior to installation, planters were staged outside and filled with water, saturating the porous concrete. The container installation process was made more difficult due to the requirement that the contractors waterproof all freestanding planters prior to plant installation. The completed project includes double-trunked 12-foot Adonidia palms under-planted with ivy and blooming bromeliads that surround the hotel's casual restaurant outdoor patio.

There were more than 2,500 plants installed into 585 planters of various sizes and shapes, some of which were made of concrete and weighed up to 800 pounds. While placement of all planters was the owner's responsibility, we assisted their mover with this work on many occasions to meet installation deadlines. Further complicating the container installation process was the requirement that we waterproof all freestanding planters prior to plant installation. With the planters being made from a variety of substances including concrete, fiberglass, ceramic, terra cotta and fiberglass reinforced concrete, many different approaches were used to accomplish this task. In addition, we had to patch dozens of planters with holes drilled in their sides for uplight electrical wiring, which was eliminated late in the project. A variety of compounds were used to patch the holes, which then had to be spot painted to match various pot colors.

The rooftop garden installation, utilizing large containerized material, proved challenging because the only access to the roof was through a hotel guest room. Planters up to 42 inches wide and 30 inches high were turned sideways to get down corridors and through the doors.

Floor protection under all freestanding containers was another FDS responsibility that proved challenging, especially when it rained on some of the concrete planters staged outside. These very porous planters initially absorbed the water, later releasing the water onto the carpet when placed indoors by the furniture movers. Fortunately, no permanent damage occurred and all planters were subsequently placed on clear Plexiglas carpet protectors.

This completed portion of the project shows three-foot tall blooming bromeliads that have been underplanted with ivy.

Because interior plantings are one of the last furnishings to be installed (along with the artwork) most of the work occurred on finished flooring surfaces. Heavily traveled corridors required that plastic or cardboard be taped down for surface and threshold protection. Most material off-loading was done on large tarps to protect newly finished driveway pavers, and all plants were transported on pneumatic tired dollies and carts. Since the interior plants had to be staged indoors, an entire ballroom area was roped off and utilized by taping double layers of heavy mil plastic down for carpet protection.

While access to work areas is not usually a security issue for exterior installations, it can be challenging for interior projects. In addition to theft concerns of valuable artwork, china, etc., there are different insurance liabilities for buildings that go from a construction site to receiving their certificate of occupancy (CO). Initial picture IDs issued to the FDS crew for the first part of the installation had to be replaced with different access cards once the building got its CO. Also, since there were more than 100 floor plants scheduled to be installed into guest suites, room keys had to be checked out and turned back in each day. Hotel employees further complicated this process, as did VIPs occupying some rooms prior to opening.

This hotel lobby photo shows four of the eight matching 14-foot double-trunked Adonidia palms planted into square fiberglass planters.

While most of the plants were installed in freestanding planters, there were also six large built-in planters that needed to be filled with plants and voiding material. As is the case with any interior built-in planter box, waterproofing was a serious concern. Although the waterproofing of these planters was not in our scope of work, they "double potted" all installed plant material as an added waterproofing backup. This involves putting the plant grow pot into a slightly larger sealed plastic liner and placing it appropriately in the planter box. Spacing between the plants is then voided and top dressed with pine bark. This approach became even more challenging for the indoor spa pool built-in planters, where pool pump equipment was housed and access had to be maintained.

While most plants were 24-inch grow pot size or smaller and could be installed by hand, there were eight large palms in the J.W. Marriott that required specialized equipment. These plants were 14-feet tall double-trunked adonidia palms that came in 30-inch grow pots and weighed approximately 600 pounds each. The plants needed to be installed in the main entry lobby that was covered with expensive marble flooring. In lieu of a forklift, which may have resulted in floor damage even while using plywood floor protection, we rented a lightweight refrigerator lift and used it to maneuver the palms into their freestanding planters.

Rain soaked concrete planters leaked water onto the carpet prior to installation of Plexiglass carpet protectors, however, no permanent damage occurred.

Installation of a roof-top garden utilizing large containerized material also proved challenging, especially because the only access late in the project, which is when this was requested, was through a hotel guest room. Planters up to 42 inches wide and 30 inches high were turned sideways to get down corridors and through the doors. Pallets of soil and various sized plant material, including four eight foot tall Ligustrum trees in 24-inch grow pots, were moved up elevators, down hallways and over a five foot balcony wall for installation.

The installation window given to FDS was originally six to seven weeks, but construction delays narrowed that down to approximately five weeks. The base FDS work crew during that time was three, and sometimes four people, with up to 10 workers staffed to meet major deadlines. In all, approximately 1,000 man-hours were utilized on this project, with minimal overtime being realized due to tight time management.

While there were many instances where obstacles prevented the crew from completing planned work for the day, the scope of this project allowed plenty of alternate tasks to be accomplished with minimum downtime. Considering that it was approximately one mile from one end of the building to the other, good planning was a big key to FDS' success. Cell phones and radios were basically useless in the 30-story structure, so problems needed to be anticipated and questions asked before crews disbursed throughout the building to perform their work.

The total value of this project including 13 change orders, was just under a quarter million dollars. Since the original budget for this work was $250,000, we were able to deliver it on time and within the owner's budget.

All of the plants to be installed in the hotel were sleeved and brought into the plastic covered staging area using pneumatic tired carts. This was done to prevent damaging the finished flooring surfaces. The plants were "staged" in the hotel ballroom, where the floors were covered with double layers of heavy mil plastic.